W.I.S.E Up

Today we spent a special day with Hope. We started out early by dropping Luke off with Grandma and Grandpa for the day. What a gift for them to allow us this day with Hope. We headed to Eau Claire for the W.I.S.E Up seminar. How informative! I love that they programming that empowers children as the keepers of their stories. Ron and I are still processing e information from different perspectives. This is the basic acronym that provides children with tools to access when they are confronted with invasive personal questions:
W = Walk Away (could also just simply mean change the subject or in someway deflect the question)
I = It's Private (It is absolutely 100% OK to use this option.)
S = Share (any, all, some, bits and pieces...)
E = Educate (teach others to whatever extent feels comfortable)
Isn't it wonderful to have options? It was nice to have the children all assured that do not have to become "the face" of adoption to everyone they encounter. They don't have to share personal details with nosy strangers in the grocery store. And, they can be guarded with their peers too. I think one thing adoptive parents (myself included) can be guilty of is thinking our children will be as excited as we are to share our experiences, what a miracle we think adoption is, and how precious we think the culture of their birth is. We need to honor that our kids just want to be kids.
One of the other more interesting parts of our morning was a discussion about what children feel about adoption as they grow. We talked about the perspectives of adopted children AND non-adopted children. The reality for a lot of our children is that they are often lone examples of what their peers know about adoption outside of Disney movies (where adoption stories oftentimes involve a villain) and the media (which most often only reports tragedy and horror stories regarding adoption and foster care in particular).
Ron asked Hope, "How many kids who are adopted do you think you know?" "About 100," she answered, and she's probably right. "How many kids who are adopted do you think your classmates know?" Hope held up a single finger. One. Wow. Now there is some pressure, whether we like to think so or not.
I'm so glad we got to share this morning with Hope. We have some thinking to do.
After the conference this morning, we grabbed a couple of quick geocaches in Owen park before doing a little shopping.
One with tradables...




One without.








This girl's got style!








Cool Tree - Scooped her right up








Dinner at Hu Hot - Mmmmmmm




This was an important day for the three of us. We haven't had a lot of Hope focused time since coming home in August. We were so thankful!
We told Hope several times today how much we loved spending the day with her, how special it was to learn things together, and how much we love her. Ron confessed, "I kind of miss Luke today." Hope replied with, "Yeah but we haven't had any stinky diapers today." hahahahaha When asked what was one thing she did miss about Luke she said, "His happy smile." We have a couple of pretty awesome children.
Thanks for reading this post. It is an important one. Check out the W.I.S.E. Up conference if it comes near you.

I'll end with a cute picture I grabbed on my phone on our way out this morning. LOVE the chill in the air and I LOVE these two precious kiddos.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Two Weeks of Discovery

I cannot believe we've been home with Mr. Luke for two weeks already.  He is doing some phenomenal things.  What a blessed family we are!  We have boosted our laundry loads, we run the dishwasher more often, we again have toddler toys scattered around the house (watch your step in the dark), we are back to sweeping...make that scrubbing the floor and walls after each meal, and we are frantically trying to prepare our children and our lifestyles for the start of another busy school year, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  We now also have a little boy in our family whose heart is bursting with so much joy it stuns us.  We have a young lady who is learning to embrace her challenging role as big sister.  We have a son who is gaining strength and sturdiness with each step, soaking up language, and experiencing a new family and world with wonder, excitement, and absolute exuberance.  We have a daughter who has risen to the occasion by helping with baths, changing diapers, and picking up toys even when she didn't get them out, all while readying herself to jump into the start of 1st grade after her life has been so hectic this past month.  I'd like to share hundreds of images we have of our family and children from these first days of getting acquainted more deeply with each other, but I'll try not to overwhelm you.

I just want to also add a thank you to everyone who has blessed us with prayers and support.  Also, thank you for all the delicious meals you've delivered.  SERIOUSLY!  Where would we be without you?  What a gift to be able to all come to the table as a family for our meals.  I'm so overwhelmed!  Be assured that our meals would not be happening as they should without your help.  It is slightly comical around here.

Enjoy ~

We've had first swings...first wagon rides...first GRASS!!!  God forbid!

Big sisters give the best underdogs!

This sun is bright!

MOM! Help me!

Stop the torture! 

I got this! 

Here are those swings again.  :)  We tucked his little legs in the swing so they were crossed in front of him.  It was so cute.

The swings are a definite favorite for both the kids.

Hope has LOVED being re-united with her sweet Lola.  I think Lola is happy her girl is home, too.

First SWEET CORN!!! I think our children like it.  :)

First Dog Walks

It is so good to see Hope back on her bike!

First Sidewalk Chalk

It was all over his face, too.  We like to experience things to the fullest extent possible here at the Heutmaker home.

First Picnics - And all the 'tasty' fun that goes with the outdoors.

First Slide

First Geocache

Alvin's Legacy GC3C75X

Hope needed a break, I guess.  :)

LOTS of visits - This was one with precious Great Grandma Eleanor

My favorite discovery - It was amazing watching Luke notice his shadow for the first time!

So, here at the ranch, we've had a busy, but delightful couple of weeks just figuring things out.  Welcome Home Luke Heutmaker!  It is our pleasure and complete and absolute miracle blessing to have welcome you into our family.

I'll close with just a couple of other favorite pictures from the last couple weeks of the kids.  Love to you all! ~ Beth

Hope sharing the finer points about the dreaded green stuff

Brother and Sister

Hope Rockin' the Monkey Bars 

Enjoying Life

Hey World!

Vogue

Signing

Luke has been signing MOM, MORE, and FOOD/EAT for several days now, but yesterday morning was the first for DAD. We are pretty excited. He's also started vocalizing a little more than "mama" these days which is fun. Today I heard "baba" and "dada." He also tests his "ahhhh" at various levels fairly often. He's pretty fun to listen to. Meals are particularly noisy though. We are still unsure about Luke's level of hearing with either ear, but watching him piece signs together so quickly is so exciting and encouraging. We sure love our happy little guy.

(We feel so bad about his rash on his cheeks. Doesn't seem to bother him, but it sure looks rough. Hope it clears up soon. Dr thinks it will heal on its own.)

1st Update from HOME

It feels so good to be home. We are struggling with trying to get adjusted back to central time though. We desperately need some solid sleep. Maybe tonight is the night. Wishful thinking.

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our goodbye to China. Hopefully I'll get some pictures from our airport welcome home and can share those too. It is emotional to return home from a trip like this. We've been incredibly blessed. Everyone has understood and respected our boundaries as far as Luke is concerned. I know it is hard for everyone who loves him so much already and want so badly to hold our son, but thank you for understanding our efforts regarding attachment. It is so so hard. Also, I want to give a shout out to some of my friends from the BWHS class of 1993 who stocked our freezer for us so we came home to wonderful family dinners. What a perfect gift and absolutely what we needed.

Now for a few final pictures from China. This was in the courtyard at our hotel that last morning. We had to say goodbye to the fish. :)


Really Awesome Staircase - Hotel Lobby





View from Our Bedroom Window - I will be forever in awe of the buildings as far as the eyes can see...apartment buildings, wealthy, poor, office skyscrapers, progressive China across the alley from "old" China with laundry hanging out the window...


Lucia met us at noon to take us to the train station.


Last few fun series of the kids...











Taking advantage of a few minutes out of the stroller at the train station before boarding for Hong Kong - Luke's romper says "Mommy's New Man."


I think that was the last picture I took in China. The train ride was nice. It took a little over 2.5 hours, I think. What a spectacular way to see some of the countryside. Hope and I were commenting how there seemed to still be tall buildings everywhere. There was a little green space. We saw some rice patties and other farmland, but really, the city seemed to just go on forever.

We didn't have a chance to get the camera out at the train station in Hong Kong that night. What a hassle that was. We got off the train and the many of the employees there were wearing surgical masks. One took Ron's temperature. For a split second there, I panicked. What if they decided to detain him because his temp was high? It was HOT and he was trying to manhandle ALL of our luggage while I had to try to keep track of Hope and push Luke in the stroller. What would I do? I had visions of me standing there among the pile of suitcases with my two kids all looking completely stranded in the middle of the train station. Luckily all my swift emotions were just at and we were allowed to pass through security without any trouble. Finding our hotel was quite a chore though. The hotel itself wasn't challenging to find, but it was quite a circus getting there. We had to wander outside, try an escalator with everyone just staring at us until finally one nice woman directed us to an elevator, get up to a skywalk over to a mall, meander through the mall a ways and up a short staircase into our hotel lobby. I can't get over how people just stood and watched it all happen. Where are the good Samaritans? (That question was answered for us the next morning.)

I would not recommend our hotel to any families traveling home to Hong Kong. The room had a small double bed and a crib squeezed into it and that was the extent of the floor space. Seriously! It really was ridiculous. And THAT was supposed to be our free upgrade to the executive floor (however, use of the lounge was not included). Whatever. We survived. None of us slept much. In hindsight, I sort of wish we would've just taken a taxi right to the airport and continued our travel home without trying to stay the night. Something for others to consider, maybe. I just don't think we benefitted at all from the hassle of the one night there (not to mention the expense).

At any rate, the next morning we had to be down in the lobby at 5:15 for the bus shuttle to the airport. Here enters our knight in shining armor for our trip home. Mr. Larry greeted us in the lobby, helped us with our luggage, and helped us get through the airport and to our gate. He is a businessman from Utah and travels to HK often so he knew what he was doing. He also got permission to take us with him through the priority check-in, which saved us from standing in a huge line. He was so kind and we are so thankful for him! We never even got his last name. He was just one of those kind people God put in our path at the perfect time.

We survived our flight to Tokyo with few outbursts. Both children did very well. Then came the long leg to Seattle. Again, the kids did pretty well for the most part until it came time for the plane to be dark so passengers could sleep. Then Luke turned it on and screamed for about 2.5 hours. I was in the back of the plane with him for what seemed like forever. Poor little man...teething, cold/runny nose, confined to my lap or Ron's for the better part of two days at this point...he'd just had enough and let me know about it. I never get people being so frustrated with crying babies. It's not as if the parents really planned the episode. In fact, I'm quite certain that if you could've seen the look on my face I was pretty exasperated with the entire thing. I'd have rather been sleeping, too. I remember feeling that traveling home with Hope as well. She was a disgruntled passenger for about the first 7 hours of the flight I think. How do we teach people to offer grace during times like these? Perhaps that's a post/discussion for another day. I can't even tell you how good it feels to land on American soil after that long flight. So amazing!

So we made it to Seattle. We weren't sure how long we had until our connecting flight home. We were a little anxious as we stood in line for customs. When we got out turn, the gentleman there processed Ron, Hope, and me, and then sent us to another waiting area to process Luke's entry as an immigrant. The lady there told us it would be at least a half hour before they'd get to our case. Ummm...say WHAT? I wasn't about to Missouri flight home. Do she looked it up for us and said we had an hour which would be plenty of time. I was trying my best not to stress any more. We were so close. But an hour was not a long time to get Luke's paperwork done, go get our luggage and recheck it again (Did you know you have to do that at your first port I country even if you checked it all the way home? It has to go through customs security at that first stop. Is that new?), find our gate and hopefully use the bathroom before boarding. I don't know how we did it, but we made it happen. We even had time to purchase a snack because there was no meal on the last flight home and we were starving. Praise the Lord, both Luke and Hope slept almost the entire final flight. It was wonderful. We got to MSP at 5:11 after traveling for something like 26 hours. I should figure out just how long our travel day really was.

We had so much fun getting our family. Oh, how we missed everyone. It didn't take much convincing to get our drivers to stop for some dinner on the way home. How relaxed we were there at a Famous Dave's.

It's good to be home.

(Sorry for the marathon post. I just need to get our travel day documented before I forgot all the details. I'll post again soon with pictures from our first days home. P.S Luke loves sweet corn! Here hee)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad