GIVEAWAY TOMORROW!

Don't miss out on my giveaway! Oh how I love to give things to others!!! Can't wait to post the winner and gift tomorrow!!!

If you have not already posted, go read the post for December 19th and post under that post only for the giveaway.

Good Luck and I can't wait!!!!

PS: Bryson did NOT have a Shriners appt this week. His next appt is on Monday. Sweet Nancy has volunteered to go with me since Robert and the kids will be back at work and school.

A Day At the Park

Marissa, Bryson and I loaded up the wagon with our picnic and headed to the park a mile away yesterday. Once we got there I realized I was not going to be able to keep Bryson off the play equipment, nor was he going to accept any help from me. So off he went, thumping all around the play structure with me in close tow. Other kids were running around stopping to watch him get around. I figured what the heck let him enjoy himself and have fun! Okay, honestly I was hoping he would completely wear himself out and sleep good at night!! By the looks of the wagon ride home, I succeeded!

Don't forget to sign up for the free giveaway on the December 19th post, if you haven't already posted on that post! Can't wait for Bryson to pull out the winner's name!

Bryson's First Christmas

Good Things Come in Small Packages!!!

New Best Friends! No more sourpuss sister, she is loving me now! We have fun together. We get into mischief together. We are brother and sister forever!

What! Nana B sent me the playdough activity center knowing that I have a lot of down time right now...right on!

Decorating my own cupcake on Christmas Eve!

Aunt Amy thinks I am the next American Id*l so she gave me this microphone for Christmas! I am LOVING it, but for some reason I keep seeing my mom trying to hide it and turning the power OFF!

Bryson enjoyed his first Christmas. I love the fact that he will grow up knowing why we celebrate Christmas. He already wants to be the one joining everyone's hands and saying grace. He quietly says something in Chinese and then loudly says "AMEN".

He loved having his cousins visiting and all the commotion that ensued! He didn't get the unwrapping gifts part until he was out of presents and then of course he thought it was fun and should have more to open! I quickly found a Leapfrog reading DVD wrapped in princess paper that I knew Marissa would not miss opening and gave it to him to open.

We finally took him to church. Robert has been staying at home with him since we got back from China. Just have felt it was too much for him until now. He did great. He loved the music. He BELTED out "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and one other time when our pastor did something funny Bryson yelled out "Good job" while holding up his thumb!

He truly is an everlasting gift!

Second Shriners Visit

Ta-Da Just after One Casting!!!

This is the callous from walking on the sides of his feet.

Finally, I get to sit down in the water. I won't tell you what else I did down the drain!

Practicing my yoga moves that my momma taught me!

My New Blue Casts! Go bears!

We spent three hours at Shriners today. It is kind of hard to get frustrated when they are doing us such a wonderful service and everyone there is so nice. We just sat with smiles on our faces as we waited most of the time in the cast room. We are delighted to see as much progress as we have in one week. It looks like his left foot will be our challenge. It is much stiffer. The doctor did a lot of stretching today on both of them and then immediately casted while holding it in place. It was uncomfortable for Bryson, but not painful. He was such a good boy. We had a nurse who spoke Mandarin come in and explain what they were going to do. It seemed to help. He was so happy when they took the first casts off! I was sad to have to put them back on.

I will post all his pictures on the sidebar so you can see the progress. This really helped me see that in just one week we are seeing improvement! Yippee! Praise God, all this hard work is showing results!

Bryson Spinning and Singing

Don't forgot to first hit pause on my music at the bottom of the blog so you can hear Bryson singing!!!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Like Father Like Son and More Wheels!

Brsyon was so excited that they were wearing matching shirts, both 49ers. Bryson was the one who noticed it. He is becoming quite the papa's boy. He prefers papa now if we are both here.

Look at my new wheels off Craigslist! We bought it for $50 from a lady in a $2 million dollar home. Seemed kind of funny pulling into their gated community to buy a $50 wagon. Oh well! It is in great shape and works perfectly for us!  He loves it!! A little early Christmas present for him!

Don't forget to enter for the blog giveaway under the last post. Hint: It is handmade with love and a touch of China! I am so excited to give it away!  

Loyal Blog Followers FREE Giveaway!!!!

I have a special giveaway to all my loyal blog followers while we were in China, prior to and since coming home from China! If you are reading this blog for the first time, you qualify to participate. What do you need to do?  Post a comment under THIS POST ONLY. Tell me either your favorite post while in China or what you enjoy most about Bryson's blog. I have a special gift to giveaway that I know you will like. It is my humble way of thanking you for all your encouraging words, emails and comments through this journey. Okay and a BIG incentive to get you to continue!!

I will put all names that posted under this post in a hat and Bryson will draw the winner. We will pick the winner on New Years Day. So any comment posted prior to the stroke of midnight on Decemebr 31st will be included in the drawing.  Make sure to leave your email address, if I don't have your blog or email address so if you are the lucky winner I can mail you the surprise!

Good Luck!!!! Great opportunity for all you lurkers to come out!!! Have Fun!

No excuses that you don't know how to post a comment! You can not enter without posting, privately emailing me does NOT count! It is this easy. Click the link below the post that says the number of comments. Leave a comment in the comment section, typing in your name or a way for me to identify you at the end and then select anonymous as your ID and publish comment. It is that easy! 

Look At My New Wheels and Freedom!

Okay yesterday's scooter creation by my mom was pretty good, but this tops it! As soon as he sat in it, he was off to the races!!! He can maneuver it all over the house and open drawers he has never seen before! This alone is going to be a big help! Just need to make a seat belt for it.

On a side note, he was restless and whimpering all night, but we didn't have to get up into the recliner and he never went into a full meltdown. It was a better night. Still have a few bugs to work out such as dressing his top half warmer as he doesn't want any blankets on him to get tangled up in his legs. We need to keep a short blanket in our bed that we can put over his top when he falls sleeps. I need to dress warmer because with the no blankets mama is freezing too!

My Mom Saved Me From Depression!

Let's say today started off at midnight with Bryson not being able to find a comfortable position to sleep. He and I probably slept a total of two hours all night. It seems he might actually sleep better reclining in the recliner. So we will move the recliner in our room tonight. But basically, he was miserable all day long, sad and crying.

I then made a scooter for him out of a tray for building blocks. I put a pillow on top and Bryson smack in the middle. This picture is worth the thousand tears his mama has shed recently!!!!

Making sugar cookies with my sisters!

Don't let this cute smile fool you, that was strictly posed for the camera!
IMPROVISE is our new favorite household activity!
Mama made it fun and he loved it!

Other good news today:

1. The doctor in St. Louis that I would prefer to use if we weren't so far away answered my email today regarding Bryson's diagnosis and treatment plan. He reassured me that he would be doing the same thing and was available for me anytime I might need him. This makes me feel really good about going with our local Shriners doctor.

2. Wheelchair will be delivered in the morning.

Let's hope we can get him comfy tonight!

New Day!

Today proved to be not nearly as emotional as yesterday was. It is more like I got my good cry over with and now it is time to move on. It is just so difficult seeing this sweet little boy so sad. It breaks my heart that he doesn't totally understand why we are doing this to him. I did show him a blog where a mother posted weekly pictures of her son's feet during treatment. I made gestures to his feet and told him he would run and play too. We did have an interpreter tell him as well yesterday, but how much can any four year old child understand?

So today I was on a mission to get some things in place for us to make life a little better these next six months.

1. Shriners approved a wheelchair so I got our primary doctor on that.

2. Picked up a DMV handicap parking application. Our primary doctor wanted $20 to sign, so I am waiting until we go to Shriners on Tuesday to get a FREE signature. (We have spent over $100 in co-pays in one week, not giving another co-pay!)

3. Went to Babies R Us and got a high chair for Bryson so he can sit up and have a tray in front of him. This was the best $80 I have spent in a long time. Now he can eat his food by himself and not sit on our laps. He can play playdough or write on the tray. It is great! I pull him right up in the kitchen with whatever I am doing. He is liking it!

My wonderful mother called me last night and said "Sally, what time do you want me up there tomorrow?" I had not even talked to her as I had no one yesterday other than my sister for a few minutes through my tears. She called mom and up she came! Mom helped me at the doctor's, getting the high chair, putting it together and while I grocery shopped when Bryson was sleeping. It was great.

Now my sister has volunteered to take the girls for the weekend to give them some fun time with the cousins and us some free time caring for Bryson. The next six months are going to be challenging for them too, so I figure it is a good idea for them to have fun whenever they can!

I'll end my post with a sweet note. Today after my sister called to take the girls, I was quietly having tears being thankful for my family stepping forward to help. I wiped them away and went into the room where Lauren and Bryson were. Lauren took one look at me and said, "Are you okay mom?" Well that did it and the tears started again. She and I had a great hug when I looked over at Bryson with tears filling his eyes. I picked him up. He gently and ever so softly started wiping the tears off my face. He got this incredibly sad look on his face and tears in his eyes. He was sad that I was sad. I just loved him up and told him how very much I love him! How all these tears will be worth it six months from now! And most of all how worth it he is! I love him more than this blog can ever reveal!

Long Day!

Thank you so much to all my dear friends who have called and emailed me today. I am terribly sorry that I have not contacted you back, but thought it would be easier to just post on the blog. As it seems every time, I try and talk about our day I cry.

Our three hour appt lasted over six hours and there was not much down time there at all. We saw a hand surgeon, his ortho doctor, occupational therapist, social worker, nurses, x-ray dept, photographer, and the cast room! Our sweet boy was a trooper.

Final diagnosis: Bryson has severe arthogryposis of his hips and feet. What does this mean? That his muscles do not work like they are supposed to and he does NOT have typical clubfeet. The saddest part of the diagnosis is that Bryson's hips are both dislocated and out of the socket. This is not something they can fix at this stage of the game. Imagine trying to put a joint back into a socket that has been out for over four years. It doesn't happen. What does this mean for him? He will never walk normal. He will probably have hip problems his whole life. He will need braces in his shoes.

Short term doesn't seem short term right now as the soonest Bryson will be out of casts will be the middle of May. The plan is to casts Bryson every week using the Ponseti method until March 6th. On March 6th, he will have a MAJOR operation to make his feet be flat on the ground. He will then have casts on for another 6 weeks, take a mold for braces and then recasted until the braces are in about 4 weeks later.

Bryson is miserable. He is angry at the world. (Kind of cute though when he smashes his left leg on top of his right trying to break the casts off!) The casts cover his toes all the way up to groin. His casts are bent at a 90 degree angle and they kind of overlap. They are heavy. They are miserable for him and those who are taking care of him. I can't even imagine doing this for the next six months.

This truly will be a day to day living for right now. I have to keep my eyes on the prize at the end of the six months. I have to remind myself that this diagnosis makes his adoption so much more meaningful for him and us. I can't imagine him NOT having treatment.

Please keep our family in your prayers. For Bryson to be able to be comfortable in his casts and very limited mobility and stamina for his care takers and siblings that have to endure this with him. I am thinking Disneyland is a great reward for the whole family when his final casts are off and he learns how to walk again.

Shriners Here We Come!

Our appt is tomorrow morning at 8am. They told us to expect to be there for for three hours. Tomorrow may be the last day that we see these sweet feet the way we have grown to love just the way they are! They are such a major part of who he is and yet once we got him, we realized how insignificant they are at the same time. If it was not going to drastically change his life for the better, we would be happy with him just the way he was made.

I have grown protective of his feet. This started when we were in China and people would make faces in disgust looking at his feet. People would come up and grab his feet in their hands and start talking about them in Chinese. We had on two different occasions people taking pictures of his feet! I couldn't stand it. I wanted to stop each and every one of them and tell them "He is almost five years old. He understands what you are saying. He is my son leave him alone!" While people in the US are so much more accepting of people with disabilities and we have not had one bad experience here, I have agonized over posting pictures of his feet. Not that I am ashamed, I just want to protect him.

With much prayer and thought, I have decided I owe it to the other "Brysons" left in China to post his feet transformation. I want people to see how easily we can fix our son's feet, how clubfeet is not a special need to be afraid of and to witness how our son's life is going to drastically change over the next couple of months. I would love more than anything in the world to see more children with clubfeet get adopted into loving families. This is a horrific crippling condition that gets worse with age, yet with correct treatment the sky is the limit. Just ask Troy Aikman and Krisit Yamaguchi who both were born with clubfeet!

Ten Days at Home and a New Boy!

Jie Jie is big sister in Chinese.

Learning how to play with a train set has been fun!

Baking oatmeal cookies that I actually came to love!

Sneaky me! I wore my brothers brand new fishing jersey before he even saw it. Well, he did ask mom to open it when it came in the mail. Too bad he wasn't here to open it, so I figured I got to try it on first!!! It fits!

Bryson is doing extremely well. He hasn't had a grieving episode in two days. He has been busy learning how to play with the boy's twenty year plus Brio train set. We have been working on putting 24 piece puzzles together. He is getting better each day with putting them together. He is not using his fingers to put the pieces together, rather the palms of his hands. I keep encouraging him to use his fingers instead. He has been busy making cookies and playing in the leaves with Marissa. Life couldn't be any better. Marissa is settling in with her new role as a big sister and not being the baby of the family. She is no longer walking around with a scowl on her precious face! She still can be exhausting with her need to tell us how much she loves us the most and imitating everything Bryson does, but it is better.

He went to the dentist yesterday. He was darling in the chair and very good! He has NO cavities. Although his teeth are packed in there pretty tight, so it means there could be some cavities between the teeth. We will floss religiously and xray in 6 months. Far cry from Marissa who had 20 of 22 rotten teeth and needed a 4 hour dental surgery in the hospital. He does have one discolored front tooth from a previous injury, most likely falling on it, but the dentist said it was healthy.

I have been a little worried about spontaneous expressive language. But here are a few things that he has said all on his own. This will help me keep track of his growing vocabulary and a great way for me to see his improvements.

I love you mommy.

I love you baba.

Hot coffee

Follow me

See ya later!

What's up buddy? (previously learned from Kevin)

Water, please

Go pee-pee

NO!

Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way

Cheese (When pretending to take a picture)

Good Job (with a thumbs up of course)

Car

Mama

Baba

Lo-lo (For Lauren whom Marissa calls Lu-Lu)

Kevvie

Up

Behaviors he is NOT doing any longer:

Smelling anything and everything (just food items now, previously he literally smelled everything he came in contact with)

Throwing everything

Spitting

Biting

Hitting

Hoarding food

Stuffing his mouth full of food

Bryson listens so well. He truly wants to please us. He goes to bed when we tell him it is bed time. Receptively he understands most everything we say, of course we keep the language simple and consistent. I can tell him to put his dirty clothes away. By himself, he can go from one end of the house to the other and put them in my closet in the hamper. I can tell him to put a folded shirt away and he will not only put it in his room, but put it in the right drawer. He loves to help me with putting clothes in the washer and dryer. He even tries to fold towels.

I just look at Lauren, Marissa and Bryson and feel incredibly blessed that I have been chosen to be their forever mommy! Of course, I love all my children bio, step or through adoption but honestly there is almost something sacred about my children through adoption. I feel like God entrusted me with their care and I have to do an even better job with them. If for a second, you ever felt like you could not love a child through adoption the same as a biological child you are greatly mistaken. I doubt there is a greater love!

For Those Needing a Bryson Fix!

Gives you idea of how little my man is! By the way, we have the best Boxer ever!!!!

Hanging with Kevvie! His idea of waking Kevvie up!

The kids hosting a sunglass parade in our neighborhood.

Bryson is doing great. It was Marissa's special day at school today. On your special day you get to bring in two things for show-n-tell. Guess who she brought in? Lu-lu and Bryson. Bryson loved it and chimed in when the class did an AB pattern tapping their legs then head. I am working on getting Bryson some services through our school district. He will qualify for OT, speech and preschool for orthopedically impaired children. He is doing great, but I do see some red flags and just want to make sure we are doing everything we can for him.

God is So Good - as if I didn't already know!

My heart was so heavy yesterday with concerns about Bryson and Marissa. (And for those of you kindly asking about Lauren, she is just a pure angel from heaven. She is having so much fun with Bryson. He adores her as Marissa does. She is just soaking up all the loving she is getting right now. Thanks for your concerns, I hold a special place in my heart for that dear girl and always make sure her needs are met. We already have a date set for getting our nails done, some shopping, which those of you who know me know that is pure mother's love as I do NOT like to shop, and lunch.) Back to my heavy heart, I just surrendered it all over to God last night. I know He brought us here and no matter what happens we will be blessed with Bryson joining our family. If nothing else, we will have the happiest child living with us bringing us joy for a very long time! However, God gave my weary heart some rest today. He gave me some incredible glimpses into Bryson's potential and ideas to make Marissa not want to be a baby, but a big girl. So she, Lauren and I will go to Starbucks tomorrow by ourselves and talk girl talk.

Today Bryson:

1. Tried to ride a tricycle all by himself.

2. Heard the song Jingle Bells on the radio and started singing it in English. I have proof as he sang it for both my sisters. It is so cute!

3. Lauren read him a beginning reader book and he repeated every sentence in English.

4. He told me twice today he had to go "pee-pee".

5. He now tells Lauren every time "up Lo-Lo" when he wants her to hold him.

6. He wanted chips. I counted out two chips. He gave me a cute dirty look and started counting in Chinese on his hand to five. He knew five was more than two!

7. He receptively understood when I told him to go kiss each of us today. So I would say "Bryson, go kiss Marissa" and he did to everyone when I would tell him who to kiss next. He knows who we are!

8. He said, "I love you" when I put him to bed tonight without me saying it first!!!!!

Thank you God for calming my heart, taming my worries and blessing my life with the miracle of adoption.

First Days at Home

We went on a little nature walk after school today and picked up leaves, pinecones and rocks to make wreaths. Bryson copied Marissa. They both had a good time.

Three Cutie patooties!

Chinese Princess and boy with a headband. And yes, he wore it all day today!

The Jealous Lapdog

Marissa getting ready for school with a little help from Bryson.

Lu is Marissa's personal hair stylist.

Justin and Bryson time

Can my cheeks get any fuller of noodles?

I am doing Bryson and Marissa's bathroom in a Frog and Princess theme. He's the frog!

We have been home for a little over 48 hours now. I sometimes feel like pinching myself to make sure it is real. We have been blessed with friends making us dinner the last two nights and the next two nights. It has been nice as it is one less thing to worry about yet we all get to sit down together as a family and eat. Thank you Heather, Jennifer and Annie!!

Another honest adoption post here. Today has been a day of ebb and flows. There are moments when I look at Bryson and see major delays that even I did not anticipate and then other moments when I see the bright and shining star that he is. I think once he gets settled in and has time to adapt to family life, he will do well. I just need to remind myself of this when I am informally assessing him and see some red flags. I kind of feel like I am at work 24/7 right now. Bryson needs a lot of guidance in learning how to play, how to ask for things and general supervision.

In fairness to Bryson, all of this is new to him. Our house is nothing like he has ever been in before. We have a big dog. We drive in cars everyday. He has been on planes and living in hotels. He now has siblings and parents who care for him. He is being offered different foods.He is now with people 24/7 that talk and look funny to him. He takes a bath everyday. He is constantly being loved on.

He is curious about everything including the door stop thingamajig on the baseboard behind the door. He finds delight opening every cabinet in the house. He waddles through the house calling for papa when he went to work today. He loves to push every button on every electronic device. We found out last night that we actually do have a pool heater on our pool as the light button was lit up on the inside pool control remote. Went outside to find steam coming off the pool and the pool much warmer than typical on a cold winter night. Going to ignore that PG&E bill until after Christmas!

Marissa has regressed since we came home. She is wanting to act as young as Bryson acts. She wants to play with everything that he has even if it is something that would normally NEVER in a million years interest her. She is clinging onto me more than ever and constantly reminding me how much she loves me, like I might have forgotten in the last five minutes. I am trying to put myself in her shoes and at the same time remind myself that this is normal behavior from any child that has a new sibling let alone a cute 4 year old that literally drops out of the sky from China to Sacramento. Finding the perfect balance has proved challenging.

Our boxer, Maggie has been even more jealous than Marissa. She actually tries to nudge Bryson out of my arms and then proceeds to sit in my lap, like she is a lapdog.

I think the older kids see this as great birth control as the chaos level in our house has increased ten fold with Bryson and Marissa running around the house competing for everyone's attention.

Last night I found myself with Bryson in the middle of Robert and I in bed and Marissa on my other side. Bryson was smacking me on one side of my face all night and Marissa was gently rubbing the other side of my face all night. Once again finding the perfect balance proved challenging.

So to end on a positive note. Bryson did tell me twice today that he had to go "pee-pee" instead of just pulling his pants down. Not to mention one of those times was in the car in the school parking lot waiting for Lauren. Thank goodness for the empty water bottle! He did count to 16 in Chinese for a Mandarin teacher at my sister's school. He did act like he was reading Chinese characters to her. He was tracking in the right direction with his finger. He did remember to put his jacket in the basket by the front door when I told him, "Bryson, put your jacket away". He did sit calmly and very sweetly on the couch for 30 minutes with Marissa before bed watching a Christmas show. He did imitate Marissa playing doctor on all of us by shoving a scope in our mouths and telling us to "say awe". He did bring smiles to our faces at least 100 times today. He is our son.

Our Homecoming!

Lauren decorated the garage door and house for our homecoming!!!

This gives you an idea of how little Bryson is compared to little Marissa. Grant it they are one year apart and once his feet are fixed he should gain maybe 2 more inches.

Happy to be together at last!

Not to say we don't have some kinks to work out. Making sure that everyone gets the right amount of loving in and establishing some boundaries for all. But all is good even with the emperor in bed between Robert and I who have not slept in the same bed for two weeks. Oh well, someday!