Fall pictures

Hello everyone, hope you are having a wonderful fall. With the failing economy I know that it has been one filled with anxiety as well. I started working per diem as a RN and I feel lucky to have my little job.

We enjoyed the fall colors here in NH but I honestly think the fall is more dramatic in NW PA, the hills are so beautiful in Warren. We have a great view from our back porch though and soon we hope the kids will be sled riding back there (not that I am wishing for winter!).

Hallween night was fun because we had company! The first time in the new house, one of my high school best friends Sara came up from Cape Cod with her son and husband. It was so wonderful to catch up on our lives, we hadn't seen eachother in over 10 years. The next day was Patrick's 40th birthday and they helped us celebrate.

A day in Boston

Ethan happy as always!

We decided to take the kids to the Boston Acquarium last Sunday. The kids enjoyed it, a new experience. We also walked along the Harborfront and found an art festival.

Saying goodbye

Its hard to say goodbye. Thanks so much to all my friends for coming together at the Cafe, I love you all and miss you so much. Patrick's office also hosted a very fun (presentations) dinner at Docksiders, he misses you all tremendously! I wish I had taken my camera!







We drove from Warren up to Newmarket to see my family and the kids again. While we were packing up the house, the kids were going to Chinese culture camp. Below they competed in their own version of the Beijing Olympics! My brother hosted a bbq at him home and it was a great day spent with family!







We arrived in New Hampshire and the last month has been very busy. The kids started school 2 days after we moved, there are meetings, soccer, renovations. Below are pictures of Ethan and his trains, the house and Nyla playing with the neighbor Katie. She has been very shy so I am grateful there is a girl her age nearby. More boys Liam's age in the neighborhood (Liam & friends on the zip line).
Also lots of dogs! I convinced Nyla that feeding the neighbor dogs treats is better than owning a dog, so off to Target we went for treats! Whew, I am hoping that lasts a couple of years!







Liam has loved soccer and is one of the top scorers on his team (he's in the middle). Nyla unfortunately played one game, said it was too hard and refused to go back (I did tell her she just had to try it). She kept up fine, just didn't want to run that much, too tiring! She and I are so much alike, we are the only ones who sleep in this house while all the boys are up at 6am on the weekend!

Getting Ready for the Move

We are doing well and I apologize for not writing, the preparations to move to New Hampshire have been time consuming. Here is a picture of our new house!



Just joking! This is a victorian in Cape May, NJ where we vacationed for a few days in July.



Ethan's speech therapist Christine is coming for the last visit tomorrow. He is making progress with speech, although he is not saying words clearly. He will usually say the first sound in the word, so no one could really understand what he is trying to say without his signs. Ethan is otherwise adjusting well, motor skills are definitely normal, jumping, climbing, running everywhere. Ethan turned 2 earlier this month! Next week it will be one year since he joined our family!

Change is hard

We have had a couple of difficult months and I have been too distracted to update the blog. The kids are fine. We have decided to move to New Hampshire in late summer. Patrick talked to a couple of hospitals in Nashua and we decided he should take a look. The interviews went well and we liked the area, urban, close to Boston -not overly crowded yet more diversity for the kids - and close to the ocean/mountains. My hope is that Patrick (who has been working long hours + call nights/weekends for 10 years) will be able to have more time at home with the kids, that may be wishful thinking! The down side is missing all our friends at home and Patrick's transition out of his practice here is proving much more difficult than he anticipated.

We went out to NH the first week of July and when I get a chance I will post some pictures of our trip. We are in the process of trying to sell our house and buy a house out there (with the market being terrible at present). We are hopeful that everything will fall into place and that we are making the right decision.

I took Ethan to Pittsburgh Childrens on July 10th for his last visit with Dr. Jiang and Matt Ford. They are so wonderful, I really hope the cleft clinic at Boston Children's will compare. Fortunately, Dr. Jiang is good friends with a surgeon in Boston and he gave me his contact information.

Dr. Jiang and Matt were pleased with Ethan's progress and although he is still not talking (but attempting to imitate words), they feel that it is ok to wait 6 months and re-evaluate. Matt ford summed up the 3 things that will delay Ethan's speech - living in an orphanage for over a year, some hearing loss from fluid in his ears (now corrected) and of course his cleft/lip palate which still has a small hole near the gumline. Despite all this, they feel that he will catch up to the other kids in time.

On the drive home I thought back to last August when we received Ethan in China. He drank his bottles but clamped his mouth shut and wouldn't eat a bite of food. I emailed Matt Ford in distress and he told me to hold off on the food, just give him bottles and let him bond. Of course it worked and at the appt last week, Ethan was eating pretzels and sharing them with Dr. Jiang. Its amazing how quickly things change and kids grow!

Ethan also has a wonderful Speech Therapist that has worked tirelessly with him 2 days a week for months now. He is such a motor kid that she is exhausted by the time she leaves our house at 9:30am, with a whole day of kids yet to see. She has taught Ethan so many things I can't list them here and again I hope we can find someone in NH that can compare to her.

I got a chance to post because Patrick took the kids out for a bike ride. But I am supposed to be packing and had better get back to it. I will post pictures when I get a couple of free minutes

Spring is here

In March we took Ethan for a follow up appointment at the cleft clinic at Pgh Children's. They are pleased with his progress. Dr.Jiang wanted to wait until he is 2years old to see him again. If he is speaking well they would not revise his palate. His only words right now are MaMa and other sounds like UhOh, UhHuh. He loves to engage people and is outgoing, but he depends on his signs mainly to communicate.

We then spent hours in the ENT clinic having Ethan's tubes evaluated. They believed that one of the tubes may be blocked, but after seeing the ENT here in Warren we are still not sure it is. They also did a hearing test which turned out normal, good news. It was great that we had a hotel room booked, we didn't get out of the hospital until almost 6 pm and we had arrived at noon. The next day we had fun at the Childrens Museum before heading for home.








The kids playing with their new stuff on Easter Sunday.


One of our friends pointed out that the last entry had snow pictures! Spring has arrived and we are really enjoying the blooming flowers and trees. Ethan loves to play outside. He will get his shoes and sign the word play. I took the kids to a nearby hiking trail to get some outside pictures, I have yet to take the 3 of them to a studio for pictures, its on my to do list.

March coming in like a lion

Easter is only a couple of weeks away, yet we are having snow storms every 3 days. I am definitely looking forward to spring this year! I've noticed that lately the kids aren't that interested in playing outside, I think they are looking forward to spring too!



The kids are doing well aside from the winter bugs. Nyla and Liam are pretty good helpers. Ethan is busy busy busy. He is trying hard with the speech therapist and can sign about 15 words. He is also showing signs of separation anxiety if I leave him. This is great to see, a sign of attachment, plus he likes to give hugs and wet, messy kisses. Below he is cuddling with his favorite blanket that nonna made before we went to China.



Celebrating the Year of the Rat at our annual lunar new year party.







Ethan made a few friends, Drew was adopted from Korea and twins Isaac and John were adopted from Vietnam.



The last few months, Liam has been really busy with swim team on Saturdays and snowboarding lessons on Sundays. These will both end soon and we will move on to pitching machine - fun fun!






We hope everyone is doing well and that it is warming up in your neck of the woods! Happy Easter!