I guess I should explain something about Shane. He prefers to be called Lin since it's a comfort to have something familiar. We call him Lin mostly but still use Shane too. I think as he becomes more comfortable in America he will probably choose Shane because of the ease of the name with us Americans. Shane continues to love school and is working hard at learning English. He has had a few moments this month where he started communicating with me. One of the first times was when I was organizing adoption paperwork. He sat down and started reading all the Ch*nese documents which made him brave enough to ask some questions. He found out how long the adoption process took, how much money it cost, that family and friends helped with the cost, and how close it was to him not being our son. I told him I would share more with him when he understood English better. His response was English now! Communicates with the boys all the time especially at night when it's dark in their room. The boys are safer and the darkness helps the confidence level. Another new for him was starting piano lessons. We are still unsure if he played before or not but he's good at it if he never did it before. He says no but then in country he said no he hadn't gone swimming before and then yesterday in working through some conversations points with him he said he wanted to go to a swimming pool. When I asked why he said he wanted to go swimming. Which prompted me to ask if he had ever gone swimming before to which he said yes. Who knows??!! He has been out learning about building fence, sorting cattle, and branding calves. The most hilarious thing of the month is watching him walk in a pair of work boots. I don't think he has ever walked in anything with a heel before which makes him walk funny and then he's walking looking down at boots all the time. Then one of the harder times was taking him shoe shopping for new tennis shoes. I'm thinking durable shoes that he could run in that was within my budget. He was thinking fashionable shoes that wouldn't last and for sure wouldn't work to run in or fit into my shoe budget. He would laugh at every shoe I pulled off the shelf so finally I gave him the choice between two of them. I have heard a lot of stories about how these kids come to America and are so grateful for whatever but it hasn't been the case with him so far or we are misunderstanding something. Another hard moment which lasted for several days was when I told him that we would be translating his QQ conversations for his own protection. We want him to stay in contact with his friends in Ch*na but also don't want anyone there destroying the relationship we are trying to build here. In time I think QQ is going to be a thing of the past either by his choice or eventually our choice for him. He has spent a lot of time sleeping this month which our social worker says is a normal form of grieving. He has been trying some boundaries this month which is a good thing since that means his wall is starting to come down and he wants to see if our word is our word. I think the reality that English is going to be harder than what he thought, life in America isn't all about getting to take vacations every weekend, he can't watch Ch*nese TV shows here because we don't like what he likes, and we don't play games on the ipad all day is starting to soak in. I can't really imagine what all he is going through right now. Overall we think he's doing good for his age.
Selah got her glasses this month. From the moment she put them on she hasn't once taken them off unless she going to sleep. After we picked up her glasses we went to Wal-Mart where she exclaimed about everything on the shelves. Another thing about her is she loves to eat anything besides eggs and milk all day anytime. I'm thankful that she is adjusting to American food. She follows me around anytime I'm in the kitchen saying yummmmm to everything I pull out. She isn't communicating a lot yet but follows lots of commands. When she starts to talk English I think she's going to talk nonstop for awhile to make up for everything that she has wanted to say for months. One thing we really worked on this month is we aren't a grunt. So we kept enforcing our names but yet giving her the choice to call Andrew and I by our names and not dad and mom if she wanted to. The grunting did end and now in the last week she has been calling Andrew and I dad and mom. We also starting not allowing her to sit and pout about something. One day Andrew came in and said something is different I can see it in her eyes. It's almost like once she knew that we wasn't going to tolerate pouty attitude she turned it off and decided that she was going to happy. We like the happy Selah so much better! She still has a lot of annoying attention getting behaviors that can drive us all crazy. If you try to tell her to stop them then she does it even more. So we have been giving her attention for a little when she comes up and does them and then try our best to ignore it. Good luck on the ignoring!! Since she decided to be happy she is also playing better on her own which is a huge praise! She is our busy don't miss a thing girl. When we eat she cant hardly eat if anyone is up doing something because she thinks either they are getting more food or doing something she wants to do. Because she doesn't miss a thing you never have to show her something twice. Just make sure that what she observed is something you wanted her to do. This month we also found out that we will be making some trips to Shiners Hospital for Children in Spokane for some needs that we have found. When we know more maybe I will share or maybe it will be hers to share when she chooses. We are believing for healing for her heart and body. Another praise is what one doctor said was missing in her ears is on fact there and everything is working just fine. The first doctor showed me what was missing with her light and I saw that it wasn't there and then today the ENT showed me it was in fact there and working properly. We are praising the Lord for the miracle that we saw with our own eyes. We are excited to see how far she has come in 2 months time.
We think the other 5 kids are doing a awesome job at blending together as a family. We are looking forward to getting out and doing some fun things together as a family soon. One thing we really want to do is go to Seattle and show them the city plus get a visit in with Shane's friend Lily. Shane wants to see a swimming pool and snow. I think the snow is going to have to wait until next winter but a swimming pool we can do. He also thinks he wants to ride a roller coaster but seemed to act scared when the opportunity presented itself. I'm sure we will be getting out more now and experiencing the American life.
For the protection of Shane & Selah I didn't write about many things because some things just don't need to be on social media. If you have questions ask me in person and I'm glad to share more with you about how everything is going. All I ask is that you don't ask me in front of Shane or Selah because I will just say it's going good. That's all of our good crazy life for another month or so!
Silly sibling time
Good bonding time with dad
Enjoying being outside
New glasses
Learning piano
Shane's favorite thing to do read Ch*nese books
Mother daughter time
These three are often together riding the 4-wheeler
Matching outfits which she loved
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