Love You!!

Two nights ago Renee said, "Love you!" to me for the first time! Renee mimics everything we say, but never has she said "I love you." I say it to her every night when I tuck her into bed. I somehow think that that she understood that these were words that you just don't say to anyone. Tonight after I said "I love you!" she said, "Love you!" I wasn't sure I heard right so I said it to her again and she said, "Love you!" again. Makes this mama's heart sing. She has said these words many times to me now. My girl is amazing!! Makes me think what amazing first parents she had. She is so smart and it makes me wonder how amazing they must be. I am so blessed to have her as my daughter, but I will never forget the mom that gave her life. She had to be pretty special!! Renee has now been home for 3 months. There are so many milestones on this journey of adoption. The day I first saw her picture, the day we became a family and the day we returned to USA!! I still sometimes watch her and I am amazed that she is here and that we finally have her in our arms.

I love you too, Renee!! With all my heart!!

AMAZING!

That was the word of the day on Weds.! I took Renee to our children's hospital to be evaluated by the international adoption clinic. I can't believe how far she has come in just 3 months with us. Without being asked Renee showed them she could hold a pen and scribble, follow their directions(I really think she understands everything we say to her), showed them how she knows her colors, helped me put her clothes back on, put her shoes on herself and showed off the many words she knows. The doctor would just look at me and shake her head like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. She told me I was in trouble and I should start saving for college, maybe Harvard. If she is that smart I think we should focus on scholarships! :) The biggest thing we talked about was her eyes (their may be a slight chance of a lazy eye and ptosis in one eyelid) and food issues. She had extreme hiccups when we first got her. They would happen many times a day. They would sound like she was choking and sometimes would sound like burps. She is better now, but the doctor thought we might have been dealing with acid reflux. Her poop at the beginning was not solid at all. I realized that when her poop started getting better the hiccups got less also. She is not gaining weight either. I have been concerned that we were dealing with more than just her getting use to a new diet as far as the loose bowl moverments and wanted to leave a stool sample for them to test, but of course she didn't poop all day until we stopped just a mile down the road from the hospital because she had to go to the bathroom. Yup, you guessed it! She pooped!! I had taken her 3 times while we were at the hospital. I considered going back to hospital with it, but traffic was horrible, it had been a long day(Renee took no naps and it was almost 5pm and we had a 3 hour drive to get home) and the person I was traveling with would not have been amused. So now I have to get it done at our hospital. We also talked about how to get her to get all the nutrition she needed. She still loves her meat and it takes bribing to get her to eat fruits and veggies. I read books and prepared for many issues when we brought our daughter home. I remember thinking right before we left for China, what if she has issues with what she will eat? I brushed the thought aside and focused on other issues. That was one issue that I didn't put much thought into. :) The adoption issues I had put a lot of time and energy being prepared for, she had no issues with. :) The very last thing we did was blood work. I didn't know how she would do. When we were in China and she had her TB test, she didn't flinch and she watched it being done and never cried. I questioned if she was still in shock from all the changes and if she would act differently now that she has adjusted to the changes. Nope! She watched the whole thing and didn't flinch. At the very end when the needle clicked as they took it out of her arm, she cried. What a strong, amazing girl I have. Maybe she will be a doctor. :) She seemed facinated by what was happening. I feel so very blessed. This girl is going to keep us on our toes!! Each day she is becoming less of a stranger and I am falling in love with her more and more each day. My niece took this picture. She sales Mary Kay and gave her some lip gloss to put on during a car ride to the hospital. She did pretty good. She loves to be pretty.

Proud to be an American

In her first memorial day parade. "Proud to be an American" song was playing as she raised her flag high. Two months ago she was still a Chinese citizen. It was one of those moments that you just have to step back and soak it all in. Renee is my daughter, but one thing about adoption is it is a process. Not just for the child, but for the parent too. There is still so much I am processing. There are days that I look at her in her high chair and jokingly say, "How did you get there?" For those of you that have waited years and years to bring your child home, I know you understand. You would think after waiting so long that it wouldn't surprise you so much that your child is finally in your arms. Sometimes I can't believe it has only been 2 months that she has been home. Then I read blogs of those who are in China right now and it seems like so long ago that we were there in China. For those of you who have adopted. How long does it take until you really feel settled? Renee is amazing and has fit into our family so well. I think I am the one who is struggling. This is hard to admit when she is doing so well. I am not dealing with the special needs that others are. I love her so very much, yet at times she can feel like a stranger to me. Then I have to remember that I have only know her for 2 1/2 months.

My son the high school graduate!

Much has happened since I last posted. Which is also the reason I haven't posted. The last few days I finally feel like I can breathe again. May 19 my oldest son graduated and the next day we had his open house. I am so proud of my son!! Here are some pictures from the day.

My son Nathan drew these and we placed Josh's photo as the head. My son's nickname is Shaggy and he wears a lot of superman and spiderman shirts. What can I say it fits his personality. Nathan did a great job drawing these.

Renee did amazing. She didn't want to nap during his open house and I really didn't know how I would make it happen with everything going on. My sister-in-law brought her dog over during the open house. Renee loves her dog. They have had the dog for around 11 years now. Want to know what the dog's name is?...... China!!! Now whenever I talk about the country of China, Renee gets very excited, but she thinks I am talking about this dog. Too cute!

This is finally how I got her to go to sleep. She loves to go for a stroller walk. She had no idea I had tricked her.

Life is about to change again. Josh leaves for a 6 weeks mission trip mid-June. He has so much to get done before he leaves. I will miss him so much, but at least I have one more year with him. He is going to live at home and go to a community college in the fall. I am so thankful to have one more year. It has been a crazy year with adotion issues. I just want to enjoy my family. But it will be different in the fall. I was so aggravated when I had to get Josh finger printed when he turned 18 years old. I thought it was ridiculous that the government considered him an adult. Well guess what? My son is all grown up. I am so proud of the man he has grown to be. Look out world here he comes!

I stand corrected.

Here is a picture of my Daniel with his braces off!! In my last post I said that my youngest got his braces off. :) Oooops! :) I could say I accidently left off the word youngest "boy", but reality is I clearly think of Daniel still as my youngest. When I pull out dishes for supper, I still at times pull out only 6 place settings. I am a mother of 5 children! We are family of 7! I am so blessed. Here is picture of all 7 of us that we just took yesterday. Here is the Welling family!!

Full Day! What a day it was!!

My oldest has his license now!!

My youngest got his braces off today!! I don't have a picture of that yet!! Nathan received a 3rd place in an art show at school!!

Josh received a scholarship tonight at an awards ceremony for the career center!!

Renee let me rock her to sleep tonight!! These pictures were taken at the awards ceremony by a friend tonight!! Love, Love, Love them. Thanks Kim!!

Home for a month!

Well it has been a month and one week since we have been home. It is hard to believe that it is already a month and yet it seems like it should be longer than a month. There are several things I have wanted to blog about, but I have not taken the time to do it. April 24 was a big day for Renee. Well at least I think it was. It is the day she gave up her favorite Chinese word and started using the English word instead. Sad to know I will never hear her say that word again, yet happy and amazed at how quickly she is making the switch in language. Really, as I look back over the last week or so, besides a little babble that may be in Chinese, she is speaking English. I have lost count of the words she can say. So you want to know what the English word she is now saying instead of the Chinese? NO!!! :) :) Who would have ever thought that you would rejoice when your toddler started saying no! Yet, it is the day I realized she had made a switch and was communicating with us so much. It has been a word explosion ever since! One of our families favorite words that she is saying is our dogs name. She calls all dogs this and even called a horse on TV this name! Our dogs name is Roco and she calls him Goco! It sounds sorta like Geico which makes us think of the lizard and we tease Roco that he is a lizard now. Another funny thing happened yesterday when we went shopping. We were trying on shoes and I pointed at the shoe and said to look at the pretty bow. She has learned the word and knows where her elbow is, so when I said "bow" she said elbow and pointed at hers! I have a few pictures to post. Here she is eating with chopsticks. She loves to eat with them and anytime we have noodles we give them to her. We went to a Chinese resturant and she had a fork first. When we finally found the chopsticks and showed them to her, she quickly dropped the fork and reached for them. She is still a meat eater! As you will see in the picture, we are still working on veggies. We have to hold back some of the meat and tell her to eat the veggies and she can have more meat. She wants her meat, so most of the time she will reluctantly eat the veggies.

See the nice pile of veggies on the side of her tray! :) I am not a big fan of the little pig tails, but it was so hot a few days ago and she was so sweaty that I thought I would try it. It is cute, but one is sticking up in a strange way. Still thought you would enjoy seeing them.

Finally this last picture is posted for Kara! Remember this ball? How many years ago was it? You bought it for our Rene. When you bought it, we both hoped she would come soon and play with it. Never imagined it would be this long. This picture brings back so many memories of when you lived here. Just a reminder that we make plans and get ready for them, but we have no idea of the journey it will take to get there. At times the path brings sorrow and yet the sweet joy that comes is such a blessing from God! She is finally holding it!