Saturday, March 29

Bryant broke finals and got third place today with his prose piece at the forensics meet. He was pretty excited - the photo of him above is from Easter, not today. That's why he does not look very thrilled. The other pix are from today. Elle, Alex, and I spent time with the two little guys while their parents went to a wedding reception. Alex and Conlee played Webkins online most of the afternoon.... interesting, huh?

Elle Counting to Ten

Here's a short video clip to brighten your day! ENJOY!

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today, about this time in fact, we were sitting in the USCIS Office. It was our first trip there. We had our original home study in hand and were waiting to be fingerprinted. We had written our first of many checks to the US Government for fees to be sure that our yet unknown daughter would be a citizen immediately upon her arrival in US airspace (provided that Ken and I both traveled to get her).

It was a very stressful day for our family in 2006 as we sat in that busy waiting room - infinite numbers of other languages were being spoken around us, attorneys were chattering with their clients, everyone was shuffling forms, people were signing in to wait their turn - some patiently, some not. Everyone had a different process to go through in the office, but we were all seeking the same goal - US Citizenship. We were silent observers in a very interesting scene. Some there were families also doing adoptions of a foreign born child. Others were married couples being interviewed in a lame attempt to prove that they were not just conning the government. Other people were there with parents or children trying to get paperwork in order so that they could remain in the States. Others were trying to show that they were in fact employed or attending classes as students.

The boys watched it all and came to some sense of appreciation for having been born here and not having to prove their identity, jump through a million bureaucratic hoops, and try to understand the process in a foreign language. We had lots of problems and snags with our own government to get the immigration paperwork done - and we didn't have a language barrier. Ken and I are both educated adults that ought to have been able to do this smoothly. We had researched the process carefully, and still, we got yanked around.

At the same time, on the other side of the world, a daughter that we did not know had just turned one. She had already experienced her cleft lip repair surgery and would soon be having her palate operation (April 2006). She still had a long wait for our arrival, and many hurdles to overcome in her short life. Bryant was only in the seventh grade that day. Alex was in the fifth grade. Neither one was as tall as their mother. Now, Bryant is a Freshman and stands at least 6'2 if not 6'3. Alex can look me square in the eye as a seventh grader. Elle is three and is a beautiful little girl who has melded well with our family - beyond our wildest dreams.

What an amazing journey!

Easter 2008

We had church this morning, then off to Granny's house. Here is Elle with Conlee and Dayton. You can see that Dayton was certainly enjoying his chocolate :-). Elle had on her "Chicks Rule" shirt that her big brothers were not so fond of. Thank you, Easter Bunny!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Well, yesterday went fine. We got to the Surgery Center at 7am. Elle went in for the procedure at 8:10am and was out, trying to escape from the nurses at 8:30am. The doctor was great and has been very knowledgable about her condition, so that is an enormous comfort to us! Here are some photos from yesterday. The first are while we were waiting and the last two are from late yesterday afternoon, enjoying the outdoors!

Today, its been sunny again, so the three kiddos are out playing basketball. Not sure they will be happy given that tomorrow and Sunday its supposed to be rainy and cold.... Guess that means we have to sit in the house and watch more NCAA basketball games, huh?

Feeding Cows Tonight

Tonight, Elle had fun counting cows and baby cows. She liked it when we picked up the cow food with the tractor. She told the hungry animals "beep beep" so they would move out of the way while we brought hay to the feeders and then, dumped it in. She had her hands doing impressions of the loader bucket and the teeth. She also made sure that she always knew where the boys were on the four wheelers as they raced ahead of us. What a pro she became in a matter of minutes! Of course, nothing makes an evening complete without teasing Grampa about kisses, and then, wiping them off as soon as he plants one on her cheek. Too bad I didn't have the camera out for that :-).

Tomorrow won't likely be such a blast given that we are to be at the surgery center (about 70 miles away) by 7am so that the ENT specialist can put tubes in her ears. Hopefully, it will go smoothly and she will have greatly improved hearing.

Please keep us in your prayers, and in the mean time, enjoy her smiles in these photos from this evening! The top two are just Elle and the cows, then Elle with her two fellow hoodlims, and last but not least, Elle with Daddy and Mommy. Nothing like pink John Deere, you know?

This Morning's Bear Attack

At first, the bear was nice and calm, covered with the blanket, posed for a photo, and seemed so innocent and cute. Then, look how quickly he changed!! You can just never trust those creatures, can you? :-)

Elle and Her Photo Album

Here's ElleAnna looking through her picture book and naming some of the special people in her life. ENJOY!

First Day of Spring Break - March 17, 2008

And we had no electricity at home for three hours this morning.... It was off at my parents house as well and they are 8 miles away, so it must have been a little bigger than a "small glitch". Elle is at Grama's with her big brothers and Daddy today. I am sure, they are having a good time. Grampa will have new black baby cows to tag. Grama has a calf that she is bottle feeding too. I called them to see if anyone remembered to bring the camera to document Elle's first St. Patrick's Day, but none of the BOYS did (imagine that)... Hopefully, they did manage to get her shamrock shirt on though!

Another Big Week

Well, the guys are on spring break this upcoming week, so Elle can spend time with them. It will be good for her to have that special attention again. Its horribly cold here today and its even snowing - hopefully, that will stop and they will have a nice warm vacation to enjoy!

Here's Elle with some of her Elmo babies.

Horrible Mother Strikes Again...

... well, the horrible mother could not find any Elmo balloons, so there were none. We had to frantic clean before everyone arrived which always adds just the right amount of stress to any situation. The car wouldn't start for Bryant to get home from school. Daddy had to borrow someone else's car to go pick up Elle from the babysitters. Mommy's car was out of gas, so she had to go fuel up (that always makes me grumpy and its only getting worse).

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There are no digital photos or videos of the birthday song or Elle blowing out her candles, so I cannot post any here. We did manage to snap a few photos, but certainly not nearly enough when I think about the enormous magnitude of this special day in our little girl's life.... I can probably only post three here that turned out at all. Karen (as usual) did a terrific job with the cake. Elle was excited to find her name written on it, along with her favorite red guy, Elmo. It was a big letter E which was even better.

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Granny did a neat prayer before we ate. Daddy made her favorite food - mashed potatoes. There were also dinner rolls with butter and grape jelly which she loves. She ate her potatoes, Dayton's potatoes, and was begging for Conlee's too when he left his chair. She also had cantelope (or orange meatloaf as Conlee calls it) which she likes. The meal was a smashing success - thanks to Daddy. She loved the cake and ice cream as you can see. She wanted to keep eating, but Conlee was anxious to have her get on with opening gifts.

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Two of the three gifts from Mommy/Daddy required batteries and guess what, we could find no functioning AAA batteries in the house. That pretty much wasted that, so neither the puzzle with animal pieces that make sounds or the Elmo telephone worked. We also got her an Elmo baby which she liked. She had worked him over in the store enough that we figured he would be safe. Of course, it took me twenty minutes to get the bottle wrestled out of his hand so that you can make him go to sleep, so long before that time, she was on to something else.

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Elle got lots of neat cards, some cash, two stuffed animals, a Hannah Montana t-shirt (guess which brother thought she needed that), the Bee Movie, a John Deere Angel t-shirt (guess which brother that was from), a pretty bracelet, and some other neat things.

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Elle's favorite gift was from her two cousins, Conlee and Dayton (oh and their parents too of course). They did great and bought her a pink camera of her own. Elle figured out how it worked pretty quickly. She took mostly headless photos, had several shots of the floor, and lots of pix of people's behinds. She took about fifty pictures. I think I got about ten, seven of which didn't turn out.... so, she did better than I did tonight.

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She knows she is three and will show you that any chance she gets. She's having a tough time going to sleep now after all the excitement, but hopefully she will have sweet dreams. Anyway, enjoy the pix that I managed to post.... maybe when she turns four, Mommy will do a better job......

Happy Birthday, ElleAnna!

ElleAnna spent yesterday with Mommy and Daddy. We had an appointment to see about getting tubes put in her ears. After we were done with the doctors, we went shopping. Elle got a tiara that says "Birthday Princess" which she ran around with all day. Too cute! Tonight is the big party at our house - serving Elle's favorite foods: mashed potatoes and corn. We'll be eating birthday cake and ice cream too of course. I will post photos once the fun has settled down.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLEANNA SUO!

Pix from this Weekend and Tonight

Emotional Week

This week, we will celebrate ElleAnna's third birthday. It is a time of mixed emotions - we are extremely grateful for her coming into our lives and are glad to be her new family, however, we also know that its possible that there is a woman in China who is sad this week as she recalls the events of her life just three years ago now.

We know very little about the circumstances surrounding our daughter's entrance into this world. We do not know if she was born in a hospital or at another setting. We do not know if she has other siblings. We do not know if her parents were married. We do not know if her grandparents in China knew that she existed or if they ever saw her. We do not know if her mother had intended to keep her, but then, because of the cleft lip/palate, did not feel she could care for her newly born daughter. We do not know her exact birth date or time. We do not know what she was wearing or if a family made blanket kept her warm until she was found that day. It is doubtful that we will ever get any answers to these questions.

We only know that on March 12, 2005, at about 4:35pm, a police officer on duty received a call from an employee of an oil field company. The man reported to the police that he had found a tiny child at the building entrance when he went out. The police went to the scene and found a little girl there. The child had a cleft lip/palate. The little girl was taken to a nearby Social Welfare Institution (orphanage) where she was raised. Based on her umbilical cord and other findings, it was estimated that she was born the same day that she was found. The orphanage staff named her PanSuo. In November of 2007, PanSuo became ElleAnna Suo as we welcomed her into our lives.

We will eat Elmo birthday cake and ice cream on Wednesday to celebrate, but I have to feel sadness for the woman in China who believed she had no other option but to give this little girl to someone else. I pray that this special lady has a sense of peace and comfort as ElleAnna is safe now. She is loved deeply by her new family and we will do everything we can to see that she has the best life possible. We will help her learn about her awesome Chinese heritage and also, will teach her what it is to be proud of being an American. I hope that as ElleAnna blows out her first birthday candles with us, she is blowing her birth mother a kiss. Elle's mother in China has given our family a remarkably wonderful daughter and for that, we are eternally grateful!

Spelling ELLEANNA

Monday, March 3

Well, another month has whizzed past and now, its March. This is the month of back-to-back birthdays in our family. My dad, ElleAnna, my brother-in-law (Chris), and my mom will all celebrate getting a year older this month - plus about a million other folks on my calendar but those are the first four I can recall.

Elle flunked her second hearing test last week, so we are waiting for our pediatrician to refer us to a local ENT to begin the process of getting tubes put in her ears. The cleft team has assured us that this is not uncommon for children with cleft lip/palate. She has probably had chronic ear infections and fluid to the point that its not really uncomfortable to her. She does not know life to be any different. We hope that they can get the process going and the tubes will provide relief as well as a hearing improvement.

Friday, I will take her with me to the Social Security Office to apply for her number. We have her Certificate of Citizenship as well as a locally issued birth certificate, so we ought to be good to go now for the last series of hoops. Of course, we need the SS# before we can file our income taxes :-), so the pressure is on!

I had a hilarious video to post last week of Elle freaking out about the lazer pointer light, but I cannot get it to load because its too large. Maybe the boys can get her to do it again tonight in a more condensed version... I will post photos later!