Our Great Adoption Adventure

"Five Firday Cake!"

2009-03-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Spiderman!

You can never get enough of the dude, at least not when you're turning 5 and he's your favorite superhero.

Okay, so he's the only superhero you've learned about yet, but still....

A picture of what Jesse adoringly called his "five firday cake" (his five birthday cake), although pretty much the whole day was referred to as his "five firday cake." Somehow food and fun kinda intermingled. Guess there's nothing wrong with that.

I know the picture is a little small here, but if you could see the look on his face!!! He is just thrilled to pieces to be listening to everyone singing "happy birthday, Jesse!" and then blowing the candles out by himself. A huge grin split his face, and he was so excited he started clapping along with everyone else.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the day:

Ronin enjoying the festivities

Speaking of favorite beasties, you may note that one is conspicuously absent in these pictures from the party. That's right, you the discriminating bloggie will catch not a single hide nor hair of your favorite felonious feline. The great outdoors once again beckoned, and Jim the Cat made fast his escape upon the arrival of unsuspecting guests who lingered a millisecond too long at the open front door....

A Mouse and a Five Year Old

2009-03-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Jesse turned 5 this weekend!

It was the first-ever birthday that Jesse has officially celebrated, which made it incredibly awesome for him, and for Jason and me. To see the delight on his face as his birthday was talked about and made a big deal of was wonderful. He knows he is loved, that he is special and important, and it is amazing to see the way he blossoms under the warmth of that knowledge! He literally doesn't stop grinning! (or talking!)

I did the whole "calendar countdown" with him (well, we started on Wednesday to keep myself sane....keep reading) to give him an idea of what to anticipate. From what we told him, all Jesse could really figure out was that he was going to a place called Chuck E. Cheese where he would get "lots of coins to play lots of fun games that he would like a lot." Jesse knows all about the magical property of coins courtesy of gumball machines, so I figured I could latch on to that particular affinity and exploit it to get him excited about his special event.

I need to retrace my steps a minute here and explain something that I have recently come to learn the hard way. When you have a kiddo who is anticipating an important event that he has never experienced before (Trick-or-Treat, Christmas or an upcoming birthday for instance), you quickly learn to keep it simple when detailing what's going to happen at said event. Why? Because it is inevitable that whatever you've told him initially will -- I guarantee you -- quickly be captured in the child's photographic memory word for word.

In fact, as a parent it may be best to scratch it all down on paper, edit it, pare it down, and then memorize it right then and there, because you will definitely have it verbatim long before the event is on the horizon (unless you wait until, say, the Wednesday right before the event). And you can be assured that any permutation, deviation or omission, however minor, of any of the slated events will be instantaneously corrected.

So when -- in one of my various recitations of Jesse's birthday events -- I mentioned that Jesse would get coins to play the games at Chuck E. Cheese, he quickly interjected his correction: "LOTS of coins, Mama!" because that's what I originally said. No one's gonna pull a fast one on this kid, I tell you.

I described Chuck E. Cheese to him. I told him there were lots of games to play, including a Bob the Builder ride and that it was going to be a lot of fun. It was obvious he had no idea what was going to happen at this mysterious entity known as Chuck E. Cheese, but he was pretty sure it was going to be a blast, so he knew enough to be excited despite his curiosity about the unknown.

He was quite overwhelmed when we got there: all the flashing lights and bright colors and game after game after game. How to choose? Where to start? But he got into the swing of things, especially when he discovered the Monster Truck, something he's been quite enamored with lately thanks to Sanford Goodall Library's children's video selection.

The Monster Truck ride was definitely Jesse's favorite part of Chuck E. Cheese. He was fascinated with how it was getting off the ground and rocking back and forth. He spent a good chunk of the two hours we were there just feeding coins into the machine.

It was fun watching little five-year-old fingers pushing coin after coin into the slot, a huge grin on his face. One coin, then another, then another. Those little shiny coins just kept right on coming.

Hey, I keep my promises.

Analyzing how Bob the Builder works:

Jesse's FAVORITE!!!! The Monster Truck!!!

Better than a favorite stuffed animal

2009-03-02T16:50:00.001-08:00

When Jesse goes down for his nap, he usually chooses one of his stuffed animals to snuggle with. I don't always see which one he chooses because he often snags one of the ones scattered on his bed or lined up in the cubbies of his headboard, and it's usually after I've already gone downstairs. Then, half the time he wakes up from his nap and comes down on his own, so I don't know what he chose to sleep with that day.

But the other Saturday afternoon Jesse was sleeping late and I decided I should probably wake him up so we would all get a decent night's sleep that night. ;) I tip-toed up the stairs and pushed the door to his room fully open. I quietly walked in, ready to enjoy the always adorable sight (on so many levels) of a sleeping child.

There he was, completely sacked out, his little hand clutching something.

It didn't take two seconds to see that what he had chosen as his special snuggle item wasn't from the myriad of favorite stuffed animals. It was not one of his plastic dinosaurs, or even just a handful of his Noah's Ark blanket.

I drew in a small breath and stood in quiet stillness, the gentle rhthym of his breathing the only small sound in the room. I felt a hot pricking behind my eyelids, and maybe swiped a hand across some wetness on my face.

In his hands was a picture of our little family.

Winter Fun!

2009-03-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

I was going to titled this post "Winter of Our Discontent," but actually the only part of our discontent is this never-ending blanket of white that keeps dumping and dumping and dumping on us. Here in the Northeast, we're feeling rather....smothered.

We were buried under 15" of snow this morning. That's not much of a novelty since this is on top of the gargantuan mountains of white stuff we've already accumulated thus far this winter. We are going a bit stir-crazy. Cabin Fever. The whole bit.

Anyway, I didn't dare traverse the miles between home and work this morning in the whiteout conditions and since I was shut-in for the day, I decided to do some catching up on dishes, laundry, general house stuff, and of course The Blog.

Welcome back, readers!

The three of us Hendricksons (plus Ronin and Jim the Cat) are doing very well. Ronin is busy recovering from some sort of skin allergy that's been dogging him (hartie har har) all winter. Maybe it's a reaction to the dry heat of our pellet stove, I don't know.

Jim the Cat has been promoted to Officer James Hendrickson:

Aaaaand.......Jesse is turning 5 this weekend!!!! Amazing! We are so excited to be celebrating his first birthday as a family! wooot!

Jesse is doing FANTASTIC! He went on a growth spurt a couple months ago, and has sprouted out of all his size 4 clothes (after eating us out of house and home). Now he appears to be on a verbal/academic spurt. His language is dramatically improving. More and more "outsiders" can understand what he's saying (or at least catch the drift). At home he talks non-stop. Pretty much from the moment he wakes up until he lays his wee head down on his pillow, he's a continual stream of verbiage.

One thing Jason and I have both noticed is how incredibly HAPPY Jesse is, and you have no idea what a joy that brings to our hearts. It's like we're watching redemption in action.

Jesse pretty much smiles all the time. This from the kid that wouldn't smile for orphanage pictures if his life depended on it.

HE LOVES LIFE! He loves having a family, he loves his extended family, he loves the people at church, he loves going to school..... His life has done a 180 from 10 months ago. And he knows it.

Jason is doing very well at his position at the county jail. The job itself is a CRAZY sort of job, which can sometimes be challenging for him. But he has the ability to compartmentalize this aspect of life from the rest of his life, so he does pretty well overall. The hours are difficult on family life; since he works second shift he's gone from 1:30 in the afternoon until about midnight, and he has to work weekends. It's difficult for Jason since he has limited time with family (and friends), and I can tell Jesse misses him. I certainly miss all the opportunities for conversation and socializing that I used to have with my best friend/hubby when he worked a "normal" shift. We do the best we can, though, and it certainly causes us to appreciate each moment we spend together!

But we're thankful to God for the fact that Jason has a good job with all the benefits, and even has some opportunity for overtime! In these crazy economic times, we are VERY grateful for God's continued provision for our needs every single day.

I'm still working about 40 hours between piano lessons, church responsibilities and my administrative job......hence the conspicuous lack of blogging entries.

One nice thing about our schedules is that we all have Wednesdays off, so we try to make the most of our so-called "Saturday" together. A couple weeks ago we took Jesse on his first sledding experience. There's a great park right around the corner from us (where Ronin and I usually go jogging when it's not buried until five feet of snow).

Tea....or turd?

2009-03-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

When we were in China, we purchased several varieties of tea, because, hey, we were in China! We went to a tea house and got to sample lots of awesome brews. We brought home several different kinds: lots of green tea, especially jasmine green tea (yum!), and some kind of "pearl" green tea, some black tea (I think it was oolong) and "others that I can't recall the names of."

Well, the jasmine green tea is our favorite, hands-down. It comes in a snazzy canister that looks like this, so how could you go wrong, right?

Each little jasmine flower is meticulously tied into a green tea ball, so each "serving" looks like this:

After you boil the water and let it cool for a minute, you pour it over the tea ball and wait for the jasmine flower to open. Not only does it smell incredibly aromatic, but the flower is mostly edible (except for the string that ties it into the ball, although I suppose if you were hard up for fiber you could give it a try).

I don't actually eat the flower, but occasionally a petal or a green leaf floats loose and I drink it unintentionally. My sister finds the rather.....errr......"organic" nature of this experience repulsive, but it's not as gross as it probably sounds to some of you.

Especially considering some of the things we ingested while in China. Need I say more?

Somewhere I have better pictures, but this will give you an idea of what it looks like:

"One of the other teas I can't remember the name of"
I can't honestly believe we actually tasted this tea in China before we bought it, but we must have, because I know we only bought stuff we sampled. But somehow either we were duped by the zealous sales lady or our palate was tricked. Somehow this "hay and barnyard" variety slipped through the cracks.

Now, the box it came in is brilliantly stunning. Deceptively so. I mean, check out the beautiful Chinese calligraphy on the rice paper holding the "wheel" of black tea. Pretty sweet.

When I unwrapped the parcel of tea and looked at it, I immediately thought to myself, "Hmmm."

Closer look:

Let's be forthright, shall we?

It looks like a reconstituted mass of straw and dung.

"Check this out!" I jokingly said to my sister and her husband as I broke into it. I started giggling. "A cow pie."

I sniffed it.

You gotta be kidding!

Smelled pretty much like a cow pie.

I frowned down at it for a minute, thinking "I have a HUGE wheel of crap. I sure hope it tastes better than it looks and smells."

Well, before I went any further, I really should have thought about my dad's old joke. You know, the one where the guy walking along sees a pile of what looks like dog poop on the sidewalk and goes over to check it out:

(peers intently) "Sure looks like poop."
(sniff sniff) "Sure smells like poop."
(gingerly pokes it) "Sure feels like poop."
(nibble nibble) "Sure tastes like poop."
(breathes a sigh of relief and says...) "Good thing I didn't step in it!"

Sure enough, the tea tasted like a cow barn. I didn't think it was possible to reproduce the barnyard scent and texture in liquid form, but somehow the Chinese did it. I think I accidentally flossed my teeth with a piece of hay just drinking the stuff.

And the box looked so pretty, darnit! I guess someone really has finally mastered the art of polishing a turd.

Christmas Past; Christmas Present

2009-01-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

Jesse's Christmas LAST year:

Jesse's Christmas THIS year:

Enjoying hot chocolate

...tripping the light fantastic in his new Spiderman slippers

...eating Christmas sugar cookies

...racing around the living room to check out his electric train from all angles

(yes, we stayed up FAR too late assembling this)

...squealing with delight at his first New England snow fall

...which gave him the opportunity to don

his spiffy new Spiderman boots

...feeling less-than-impressed at

the ridiculousness of sporting THIS.

Seriously, Mom.

And no post would be complete without an update on the antics of Jim the Cat.

To continue the thread from my previous post regarding Jim's passion for all things toothpaste-y, I give you my most recent discovery of a weekday morn:

...the remainder of Jason's minty fresh gum;

the result of the feline's canines at work...

It crept in on little cat feet...*

2008-12-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

I will suffer in silence no longer. You want to know more about what it's really like? You want all the hidden things revealed? Your wish is my command. I will give you a glimpse into the daily terror I face and have -- thus far -- survived to share with you all.

It has a (furry) face. It has a (ridiculous) name.

It is: Jim the Cat.

He had us all fooled at the onset. He seemed so sleepy. So peaceful and blissfully domestic. All snuggly and warm and lovable.

And purring.

That's what gets you. The happy motor going strong as he rubs the side of his face against your petting hand and flops over to give you belly.

But he was just sick. It was all a horrible facade. He had caught a terrific cold at the shelter. That was what accounted for the false pretenses and miscommunications.

Now he haunts my waking (and sleeping) hours and I mean that literally. He tracks me throughout the house. Even in that most sacred of places I am not safe. That's right, folks, not even the bathroom.

Jim the Fastidious:

He is an agile beastie: with his little pawtoes he whaps open the sliding bathroom door (don't I get ANY privacy?) and then whaps open the shower doors to contemplate joining me.

Cats are supposed to HATE water. Hnph. Not only does Jim continually dabble his furry paws in it any chance he gets, he has been completely doused several times. And yes, I laughed when I heard the ruckus. Most diabolically I laughed. It was ENTIRELY his own doing, I might add. I didn't give him even the slightest nudge.

And speaking of things cats are supposed to hate, let's talk about toothpaste. The vet says normal cats hate it. He's never met one that doesn't shrink away from that minty-fresh smell we humans crave as part of our eternal quest toward improved personal hygiene.

Apparently Jim the Cat is on this quest as well, because when I brush my teeth (yes, I do!), I will more often than not suddenly feel the delicate (i.e. razorsharp) clawtips as they patter delightfully (i.e. rake painfully, leaving bloody furrows) up the entire length of my body so that Jim the Cat can nestle on my shoulders. He even -- and don't get too grossed out here, folks, you're the ones who wanted to hear more -- gently paws open my mouth when I'm done brushing so he can (try to) lick any residual Colgate with Whitening Power off my lips.

And mouthwash? Oooooo! (delicious shiver) Nectar of the gods!

We have to hide the toothpaste tube and the toothbrushes because he will lick them clean. Who'd of thunk we'd have a Battle Royale over sink/bathroom time. With a cat.

Jim the Night Stalker:
Another darling tactic of Jim the Cat's is to hide in the corner of the stairway and then launch down on me when I go upstairs to say goodnight to Jesse. I can tell you, there's nothing quite like an aerial cat to make you Air Jordan.

Jim the Reconnaissance Man:
Jim the Cat is regularly on a Search & Rescue Mission for milk tabs, Tonka truck wheels, and loose toy parts, busily retrieving small items from Jesse's stockpile. His favorite? The little plastic cup that comes with Children's Tylenol.

Again, who'd have thunk I'd have to reassure a tearful 4-year-old that "Meow Meow" is not really going to eat his toys.

Probably not, anyway. I try not to make any guarantees.

So three guesses as to who was responsible for the precariously tilting Christmas shrub which greeted my bleary eyes at 6:00 this morning:

*Was that T.S. Eliot? Somebody help me out here....

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

I think we all suffer from Griswold Tree Syndrome at this time of the year.

After tromping around the vast outdoors at the tree farm or hunting through the towering heights of Christmas trees at the local tree stand, you finally find THE PERFECT TREE! After endless hours of deliberation, you both finally -- miraculously -- agree that not only is it perfectly conical and aromatic, it is also "just the right size" (and price) and there is great rejoicing.

Then somehow on the 10-minute trip home THE PERFECT TREE overdoses on vitamins, or maybe you pass by a nuclear power plant that accidentally surges and by the time you bring it home, THE PERFECT TREE barely fits through the front door. You end up having to hack off, like, ten or twelve feet of that so-called perfect tree just to clear the ceiling. It's like on the National Lampoon's Christmas movie: the Clark Griswold Syndrome.

Well, Jason and I had the opposite problem.

Our house has the lowest clearance of any house I've ever been in. Jason practically has to duck his head to get under the beam in the living room. It's like the previous owners were Bagginses. Bagginsses. Baggins'es's. Bagginsii. Whatever... The point is, we knew we wanted a small tree. I just wasn't thinking it would be QUITE this small.

I introduce to you: our Christmas shrub.

I know that Jesse's had a growing spurt, but I assure you that when he can reach the top of the Christmas tree, you know you have a small tree.

Jesse put up the ornament he made at school (his first Christmas ornament).

Then he puts up Baba's first ornament (from Jason's childhood) on top of it.

Our magnificently decorated Christmas shrub:

(SPECIAL BONUS: we only had to use HALF our allotted ornaments to fill up the entire tree...in less than HALF the time it normally takes to decorate...with only a four-year-old working on it.)

Merry Christmas!

Silent Night

2008-12-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

Jesse's first CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Jesse's first time wearing a tie was a huge hit. He was struttin' around the house before we left for the program, proud as could be in his fancy duds. Very suave indeed, my little metro man. Cousin Abby also had a new outfit for the program, along with French braids in her hair. All Cousin Anna wants for Christmas is her two back teeth to come in so she can stop gnawing her fingers.

I am happy to report that although he looked a wee bit skeptical about standing in front of a roomful of strangers, Jesse at least remained standing (or occasionally leaning against the fence post) for the required duration.

He did not run screaming from the platform or do any of the myriad public antics parents so dread. For instance, my friend's son spent the bulk of the evening performing the Robot. Solo and unscripted. But he's five. I thought he pulled it off nicely.

Another child well...folded...to the music I guess you'd say, the whole upper body wrenching side-to-side, back-and-forth in surprisingly rhythmic 4/4 time. But he was a sheep at the manger. A violently spasmodic sheep, but there you go.

Another child plunged off the top tier of the staging, costume flying helter-skelter. She quickly found her way back up onto the stage, safe, if a little flustered.

Abby was overwraught, knowing she was going to get up and sing with her classmates in front of everybody. But Jesse was blissfully ignorant of what lay in store for the evening. And of course, there is that small detail: he doesn't really sing yet. At all. Sometimes I catch him humming, which is pretty cool. But definitely no singing.

Somewhere inside I was secretly hoping that maybe, just maybe, I would see his little mouth moving along with "Away in a Manger," once he had the voices of all those other kids behind him.

But no, he simply stood there rather pensively, sort of taking it all in wide-eyed. The lights, the Christmas trees, the people.

It was a good night. A silent night, but a good night.

Santa the Firefighter

2008-12-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Parade we went to on Saturday afternoon was a huge hit! I told Jesse there would be fire engines and lots of cars with lights. And NOISE. I told him it would be very loud.

His eyes lit up. Of course he couldn't have been more thrilled at the prospect of cacophany and auditory mayhem. (And I couldn't be more thrilled at the opportunity to trot out "cacophany" and put it to good use in a sentence again.)

Out Jesse went with his warm hat and mittens to enjoy the show - the best part being the "cloud hire engine" (aka "loud fire engines").

Here he is scoping it all out with his grandparents, waiting patiently for the fire engines' approach.

Ahhhh, we just caught sight of the firefighters in full regalia, with the fire engines trailing along behind in all their splendor.

While they were standing there in front of us, the firefighters got an emergency call. All of a sudden they were pulling out their radios and rounding each other up to head out. Poor Santa almost took a nosedive off the firetruck as it yanked left out of the parade route and took off down a side road. I was happy to see he didn't strip out of his red suit to get into his other uniform right then and there. How many children were spared that potentially traumatizing revelation...

And I completely forgot about the paraders passing out candy to the kiddos. Jesse was pretty excited with his pocketFUL of "tandy." I have a video of his recounting the parade; I'll see if Jason can figure out how to load it on the blog. But here's Jesse's summary when it was all over: "More hire engines, Mama! More tandy!" When I told him it was all over, he frowned and tried to bargain with me: "Hamorrow (tomorrow) more hire engine and more tandy, Mama."

____

I was going through Jesse's school papers just now and came across a few pieces of his handiwork that I thought you'd enjoy.

Here's his Thanksgiving Turkey: (notice the different colors and the fact that he's doing better about staying inside lines)

And this was the first page of his "Thanksgiving Book."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Magic Carpet Ride

2008-11-27T13:31:00.001-08:00

On Thanksgiving morning, I (Emily) decided to go for a run. After blasting through an easy 10 miles at an astonishing 6min/mile pace, I arrived back at the house -- invigorated -- and tucked in to my organic banana and oatmeal.

Or maybe it was a barely-three-mile halting jog and I had to skip breakfast altogether...

...because this is what Jason and I spent the following 45 minutes staring at when I got back to the house after my run:

Are you seeing it?

No?

Look closely at the curved branch of the tree, letting your eye travel three-quarters of the way down the length of that branch.

Do you see it now? That little bulge perching precariously and yet with dignity and disdainful haughtiness intact?

Still no? Well, here it is a little closer:

Maybe Jim the Cat has been doing too much reading up on turkeys and their untimely demise at Thanksgiving. Maybe he read too many heartwarming tales about the Thanksgiving Pardon and started getting ideas, fearful that it wasn't just turkeys whose lives were in jeapordy.

But for whatever reason he saw his moment of opportunity when I heaved myself across the threshold of the house like so much wobbly cranberry sauce. Jim the Cat made good his escape (Lam #2, for those of you keeping record) as I careened, gasping, through the front door.

The situation was further compounded by the fact that it was 6:45 a.m., and in our neck of the woods the weather's been frosty and wet. So when I tried to convince the cat that it was in the best interests of his health and longevity to retrace his pawtoes down the length of that dratted tree this very minute, he started sliding precipitously downward:

If I had been in a better frame of mind (or breathing normally and getting the mandated oxygen levels to my brain), I would probably have enjoyed watching what happens when a feline of the species sees that he's lost that all-so-important control over his environment and starts slipping and sliding while suspended 15 feet above ground. Saucer eyes, wild scrabbling, general terror and pandemonium... And that was just me. You should've seen Jim.

But, if you're wondering, it's not all that fun: standing (more or less, that is. Remember it was 10 miles, people. TEN!) in workout clothes as pools of sweat -- I mean, glints of perspiration -- slowly freeze into icicles all over your too-quickly-cooling body. It's what happens when you imagine you've pounded out 10 miles of cross-country terrain at a blistering rate of 6 minutes a mile and then stand stupidly at the base of a tree for 45 minutes watching Cat square off against Angry Squirrel Whose Territory Has Been Impeded Upon. If I get pneumonia from trying to rescue a stupid cat, I swear...

Anyway, I swiftly contemplated and then declined the opportunity to add Tree Climbing as the finale to my stimulating morning workout routine.

Instead, I might have made the suggestion it was time to call the Sanford Fire Dept. and put our tax money to good use.

And Jason might have spat, "Over my dead body" or something along those lines. (My heartrate was still kinda high, and the blood pounding in my ears made this wierd sort of whooshing sound in my head that made it hard to hear. I think it's normal though.)

So we continued our current course of dubious action, which primarily consisted of plaintive, cooing noises to encourage the cat to come down, alternated with daggery glares. At the cat, mostly, but I think I caught a few accidental barbs from Jason. It must be that I was standing in the way of the crossfire...Uhhh...even though the cat and I were in opposite directions, now that I think about it. Hmm.

Well, accidental, like I said. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I dragged Jason out of a warm bed to deal with the "emergent cat" situation. A situation that, I might add, was degenerating quickly.

I think I started hissing at Jim. Delirium.

And did I mention I was starting to collect frostbite?

Finally we compromised. Jason grabbed a ladder from Jesse's yet-unassembled swingset. I grabbed a rolled-up section of our carpet remnants, and we started a new tactic to cajole Jim into our loving arms before Jason brought him down with a shotgun.

Voila, magic carpet ride. Aladdin, eat your heart out.

Once safely back inside the confines of his prison walls, Jim contemplated what could have been.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! (Incidentally, I ate two turkey dinners to make up for the 10 miles it felt like I ran.)

More pictures of Jesse

2008-11-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

As soon as I posted the Fall Fun update on the blog, I got an immediate e-mail back. It was all of two words: "MORE PICTURES!" So here are a few more random photos of the Jess-man.

Since Christmas is just around the corner, check back often! The Hendrickson family has a lot of fun activities we are looking forward to. A lot of "firsts" for Jesse, and for us: Christmas tree hunting & decorating, holiday parades, Christmas claymation specials, candlelight services, presents.....

On Fri., December 5, Jesse's pre-kindergarden class will be part of the school's annual Christmas Program. The four-year-olds are usually costumed in the traditional assortment of shepherds keeping watch and angels warbling from on high, with a cherubic girl holding a Cabbage Patch kid more or less (usually less) maternally as she tries to avoid getting thwacked by Joseph's herding staff. I'm hoping the program director will go for a more authentic flair this year and cast Jesse as one of the wisemen from the East. ;) Stay posted.

Until then....

Apple picking & corn maze

2008-11-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

Somehow I forgot to include these pictures in today's earlier post. You'll notice the lack of smile on Jesse's face. This is due to a lack of afternoon nap that particular day. He was less than enthusiastic about getting his picture taken, although he still talks about "pick the apple from the tree and eat" so I know he had a good time.

Welcome Fall!

2008-11-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, the Hendrickson family has just celebrated six months of togetherness!

In many ways the time has flown by and it hardly seems possible it's been six months. In another aspect though, it feels like AGES. Jesse has progressed so amazingly in his adjustment, speech and emotional development that in many regards it doesn't feel like he's the same kid. Gone is the wide-eyed insecurity, the clinging-to-pantleg fearfulness. Now Jesse is a social butterfly who loves his classmates at school and loves the attention and care that he gets wherever he goes. Imagine a kid who for the last four years got next-to-no love, play, food, communication. Now everywhere he goes there are people who care about him, kids who play with him and help him learn how to do things. He has food, TV, family, Bob the Builder, and Spiderman. What more could you ask for?

Anyway, here are a load of pictures for your visual entertainment. Trick-or-Treat, pumpkin carving, harvest festival....in no particular order.

Jesse's pumpkin (second from right at the bottom) won "Spookiest Pumpkin" in the contest. Yea, Jesse!

School and Life and Jailhouse Rock

2008-09-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

A few updates to keep people posted on what's new with the Hendrickson clan.

ON THE FELINE FRONT...
Jim the cat is adjusting well. He managed a few creative escapes into the great outdoors, but he seems to have gotten over his wanderlust for the most part.

Unfortunately one of his escapes entailed a VERY convoluted lam into the neighbor's yard....while they had friends over for a cookout. I cornered Jim at the fence bordering our properties and threatened him with bodily peril if he didn't trot his furry self back indoors. Of course, he took one look at me and grinned to beat the Cheshire cat, then slinked himself under that miniscule 2.75" gap between the fence and the ground beneath - greener grass, and all that - and disappeared into their yard.

This doesn't sound like a huge deal, I realize, but if you understood the property demarcation catastrophe that constitutes this part of our neighborhood you would understand. Due to Sanford's affinity for convoluted fencing, there is no direct route to get to my neighbor's yard, although it borders mine. The quickest way for me to get there meant I had to lope through another neighbor's property, through the town graveyard, and over the rear neighbor's stone fence, calling the cat the whole time.

I saw many a furrowed brow on the faces of my neighbor's guests as I clambered over the stone wall and traipsed apologetically down the length of their back yard, all the while calling snarling, "Jim! Jim, get over here!"

The cookout guests looked at me like I was crazy. Ok, well, I suppose that's not entirely implausible, but for story's sake that's not my point. One of them stared at me, then looked at his friends and pointed a forefinger at his chest, like he was asking, "Me?"

Finally the host turned to him and said, "The cat." Everyone looked at him quizzically.

He elaborated. "Jim." He pointed to the beastie (who had chosen that moment - when he caught sight of me barreling toward him - to beat a hasty retreat back under the 2.75"). "The cat."

"Ah." They nodded in understanding.

Poor guy thought this random female was hollering at him, perambulating distances and scaling walls in an angry tirade directed at him....

School: Jesse loves it! He's doing really well. He goes all day on Tues & Thurs, which means he gets no nap...which means it's rough on everybody once the adrenaline wears off later in the day. But he's starting to adjust to the schedule change a little better now.

He is a motivated kiddo - his teacher tells me that he is always watching the other kids, trying to emulate their behavior. That means that he now colors inside the lines, draws straight lines to match objects with each other, and is working on writing his alphabet and numbers. Keep in mind he never even picked up a pencil until four months ago.

Oh, and the 4-year-olds work on memorizing short Bible verses. Apparently, Jesse kept watching as the kids got up one by one and went to Mrs. H to recite their verse. He saw one kid after the other get up, go over, recite and then sit down. When Mrs. H finished with everyone, Jesse got her attention. He pointed to her, then pointed to himself, then pointed back to her again. She said, "Jesse, do you want to say your verse?" and he nodded vigorously. Of course, he probably only mirrored the words she said, since I hadn't really tried to help him learn any of it since the words in the verses have no reference point for him yet. So, needless to say, we now try to learn at least three words of each Bible verse so he can participate with everyone else. It is very important to him to do what everyone else is doing.

Oh, and he's learning Spanish. They get 15 minutes once a week. Ni hao, ola, hello!

Jesse gets very excited when we tell him that the next day is a school day. We choose school clothes and talk about it before he goes to bed. He bounces out of bed the next morning, gets dressed and then bounds downstairs to pack his lunch. He loves assembling his apple juice, strawberry juice, sandwich, and Spiderman fruit chews into his lunchbag.

He loves his pre-K teacher and his classmates. Apparently he has a special fondness for one of the little blondies in first grade with whom he's been cavorting at recess, but of course he's not talking about his budding personal relationships with us. We're his parents and therefore by default not cool enough to take into his confidence in these matters.

The only thing Jason and I wish was different was that Jesse was able communicate with us about his day. We know he has fun, but he just doesn't have the means to tell us all about it. Sometimes it gets disappointing when we hear the teacher say, "Your child has probably told you all about X, Y or Z...." and Jason and I just look at each other and shrug. Meh. Oh well.

Language: Speaking of talking, though.....
Jesse is doing VERY well with English. He talks up a blue streak now, although once he gets something in his brain he will just keep repeating it over and over. I tried to keep count one time of the number of times he told me his three-sentence story, but I lost track. He was so excited he just kept saying the same three phrases over and over and over and over.....

I'm sure he gets frustrated with his lack of a word bank. There's only so many words he knows, so he just wants to keep practicing them until he gets new ones to use.

In that vein, his vocabulary is really growing. We are continually amazed at just how much he understands and correctly processes. He LOVES to communicate and tries very hard, continually pointing to objects (right now he's on a color kick). And he loves to "read" books with people and show you all the things he recognizes.

Some of Jesse's favorite things:

Spiderman (loves the PJs)
Bob the Builder
Spiderman
Tractors
Spiderman
Bicycles/Tricycles
Spiderman
Thomas the Tank Engine

How the 'rents are doing:

Re: Emily
I am back to work at my permanent part-time job at the surveying/engineering company; I also have 14 piano students this year that I'm trying to juggle lesson times for. Yowzers!

Re: Jason
He's still busy training to thump perps. He has about 3 more weeks before he's in the pods full-time. Thursday he spent 6 hours learning how to use handcuffs (it takes that long to figure out?). And then yesterday he got maced and spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for the burning to stop. Piece of trivia for those interested: Tobasco sauce is rated at 2,000 scoville units; O.C. (oleo-resin capsicum, the fun thing formerly known as pepper spray) rates at 2 million scoville units. And your eyes have to be wide open when you get hit with it from four feet away. So it's a tad...toasty. You will notice his eyes are still a tad puffy, even today when we took this pic:

We are looking forward to all the fun fall activities, like harvest parties and halloween. We will keep you posted as we get a costume figured out. And then, of course, comes Thanksgiving (one of my favorite holidays, thus far thankfully noncommercialized) and then Christmas!

First day of Pre-K

2008-08-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

The boy was not traumatized.

Mama was not traumatized, overly.

The boy did not traumatize the other young scholars (that we know of).

But it was only his first day. And it was a half day at that.

Give it time, people, give it time...

Meet Jim

2008-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Jason "the Softie" Hendrickson fell in love at first purr.

Sucker that I am, I agreed to drive an hour with Jesse for a meet and greet.

So, if you can picture it in your head, the three Hendricksons are in this little private cubicle of a room at the Stratham SPCA with this skinny, long-tailed striped thing that's a tad on the freaked out side.

One look at Jason and it was obvious he was smitten and trying very hard not to look like it. He has no poker face.

Jesse was all smiles and giggles, completely enraptured.

I, however, was the lone holdout.

In the half hour I had sat in that three-foot triangle of a room, the cat hadn't even deigned to sniff me over and dismiss me in the supercilious manner of cats everywhere. With as much space as I fill, I hadn't even registered existence.

And, as much as I miss my old cats (terribly), I really wasn't sure we were ready to introduce another being into our mix.

Finally, when the overzealous crazy cat lady masquerading as an SPCA volunteer left the room, I looked at Jason.

"I really am not sure we're ready for this."

How is it that they always know?

Because no sooner had the words left my mouth than Jim jumped up in my lap, stretched his paws onto my shoulder and nuzzled into my neck, plunging his wet nose along my cheek and tangling into my hair. Purring.

Then he fell asleep all warm kitty and happy-like.

For 40 minutes. Straight.

Who with a beating heart can say no to that?

He came with the moniker "Jiminy." But since we have a tradition of naming all our four-footed friends something Asian (per our previously mentioned affinity for the Martial Arts), the cat has been officially dubbed "Yojimbo" (allusion to the Kurosawa film) and shortened to Jim.

Everyone please give a warm welcome to Jim.

Welcome home, Jim the cat.

Summer wind-down

2008-08-19T06:33:00.001-07:00

It has been almost two months since I've updated the blog. The natives are getting restless, threatening to throw pointy objects my way to check to see if we're still alive and kicking.

I assure you we are doing fantastically well here on the homefront! Jesse is the best thing that's happened to either of us since we met each other. We truly stand amazed at what God has done in our lives through him, and how much Jesse has blossomed since we first laid eyes on him.

He is such an unbelievably awesome kid. He is very well-behaved, he is smart and intuitive, he is picking up on English very well. He strings lots of words together, but not everybody (incl. us sometimes) fully understands it even though it is now all in English.

He accumulated a ton of words in the first 6 weeks, then kind of took a break to use them all. Now he's started back up again, pointing to objects to find out what they're called. We read a lot and use different kinds of flash cards. He loves it! He knows basic words for the body, the things relating to food and eating, sleeping and such. Now he's onto colors and numbers.

He understands most everything we say to him (and we have to be careful because he's starting to understand what we say to other people sometimes, too). Language learning comes at an incredible rate at age 4. It was the perfect time for him to join our family.

He listens well and understands instructions. We've had him attend a VBS as well as the weekly Library Story Times to help him get used to listening and obeying other people. Plus it's been good for him to watch other kids doing things and follow their examples. He's done remarkably well (these kids are resilient!), which is great for us and comforting as we anticipate unloading him on his pre-K teacher next week! He'll be going Tues & Thurs all day.

I returned to work (sporadically) in late July, helping to fill in for people on vacation. This month I have transitioned back a little more. Jesse has been staying with his grandparents and he loves it. I get a little bummed he likes it so much, because he claps his hands and squeals with delight as soon as he sees their driveway ("The Mammy!!!!") and then practically pushes me out the door with his version of Goodbye, see you later. Have a good day! ("Bye Bye, Mama. Later good day!"). He often comes down to visit me at work and help me get the mail at the Post Office. Too cute. He is quite happy to give me a hug and go back with my mom or dad. So I'd say he has adjusted better than expected!

We've done all sorts of fun things together this summer. Here's a few:

Strawberry picking
Blueberry picking
Kite Flying
Lots of trips to area parks
Visit to the zoo
Visit to the pool a couple times
Visit to the lake twice
Visit to other grandparents in Peterborough
Visit to cousins in Saco
Learning to ride a Big Wheel, tricycle, gokart, and bicycle with training wheels

Things he's learned to do that you'd never think about:

How to run. He never had a reason or opportunity to run before. It was something totally new. He watched his cousins a lot. The first time he ran around the house, I was so excited! He was grinning ear-to-ear. I was grinning ear-to-ear.

How to get a hug and how to give one. I just got my first kiss on the cheek the other night. It was a sloppy one, like getting kissed by an 18-month-old. I didn't care.

How to eat an ice cream cone. Hilarious.

How to play with toys. He had NO IDEA what to do with toys and trucks. He would touch them for a little bit, roll them on the floor and then either put them back where they were or hand them back to us. He also had no concept (at first) that these things were his. No sense of ownership (to be expected)

How to play with others. He is OK with sharing (a lot of the time, especially with encouragement) but sometimes he really just wants to play by himself or just be by himself. Sometimes it's not an issue of sharing - he'll readily hand the object over. He just doesn't want to participate.

Things I've learned from Jesse:

It's always good to put things away, in an orderly fashion, when you're through with them. Everything has a place; it came from somewhere and it should go back there. I've tried to encourage his natural tendency toward orderliness, and it has rubbed off on me. I find that my house is the better for it. It reminds me to appreciate the things I have.

Don't waste things. Food should be appreciated. Eat every crumb. And make lots of happy noises while doing so. Not everybody in the world has enough of it. Some don't have any of it. Be thankful if you have it, even if it's basic and simple. Be content with what you have and be joyful if you are lucky enough not to be eating it alone.

If you love someone, tell them. Many times. Over and over. Who doesn't need to hear it ... in any language you know (body language included).

Pay attention when people talk to you. Even if you aren't sure exactly what they're trying to say. Sometimes it can be hard to express yourself. Be patient. Watch. Listen with compassion. Make an effort yourself to understand even if they're not doing a great job on their end. You don't know how heavy someone else's burden is on any given day.

And one last story:

The other night we pulled out the photo album the orphanage had given us. It contains only a dozen or so pictures of him from when they first got him through his stay there. He isn't smiling in a single one, but it is precious to us, and he lights up every time he see it.

He had gotten really rough with it one night (about 6 weeks ago) and I put it away so he wouldn't damage it. I kind of forgot about it. I came across it the other night and Jason and I sat with him as he looked through it.

This time he opened the first page, looked at the picture, smiled and pointed to himself, saying "Jesse!" (last time it was "Dang Yong").

Then he cocked his head to the side and said, "Jesse's sad. Jesse's crying."

Jason and I just stared at each other.

Jesse turned each page over carefully, pointing to the bleak expression on his face, repeating the same phrases. "Jesse's sad. Jesse's crying."

We pulled out an album of him since he's been with us. He pointed to the various pictures:
"Jesse's sunglasses! Jesse's tractor! Jesse's shoes! Mama, Baba, Jesse!" Big grins all around.

One little boy is awful happy to have found his family.

JESSE SHOWING OFF NEW HAIRCUT

JESSE VISITING WITH UNCLE SETH WHO JUST GRADUATED FROM U.S. BORDER PATROL SCHOOL (note Jesse sports his "Junior Federal Agent" shirt)

OPENING A NEW BORDER PATROL BACKPACK FROM UNCLE SETH:

VBS "Power Lab!"

2008-08-19T05:20:00.000-07:00

Jesse went to Abby's church's VBS in July. It was a Power Lab theme, and Jesse had a ... come on, you know it's coming ... BLAST!

It was a great opportunity for him to socialize with other kids in a semi-school setting, because summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and he's heading for pre-K next week!!!

Go Directly To Jail

2008-08-19T04:04:00.001-07:00

Jason's heading to the clinker after Labor Day.

But it's not that he's finally reaped his just rewards. He's starting a new job as a correctional officer.

Now, most people when they hear that cast a look askance, trying desperately not to raise a dubious eyebrow in question/concern/are-you-completely-crazy?

They think he must be really hard up to do hard time. But it comes with benefits. I mean that literally - retirement, health, vacation, the whole works. And many of you might not realize that Jason and I have been studying jujitsu on and off since we met each other. He was the first person to teach me how to kick butt properly so I could take care of myself and feel safer in my surroundings.

So we study arm/wrist/ankle-locks, joint manipulations, take-downs, chokes & escapes, a dash of grappling and a few punches or kicks thrown in (bad pun). It all sounds so terribly violent, I know, and for those of you who knew the timid shrinking violet that I was in high school and college wouldn't recognize me on the mat.

But without getting into a whole dissertation on what jujitsu is and isn't, I'll just say it's not violent unless you need it to be. It's one of the most defensive arts around. It's like the hippie vegan ballad-writing cousin in the Martial Arts family. If you have to resort to violence you've already lost (which is why we also study and teach women risk assessment, alertness, awareness and good decision making).

Now, I suppose tossing each other around a mat is not nearly as romantic a hobby as, say, stargazing on the beach. And it's definitely not as elegant as ballroom dancing (especially with Jason as your partner - the last time we went swing dancing he clotheslined me... I know, I know, you wouldn't think dancing and jujitsu would bear such similarities they could be mistaken for each other. Ahem. They don't.)

But we leave a swath of destruction in our wake the likes of which few other pasttimes could come close to. And that's something, right?

Anyway, what job could be better suited for Jason?

So I held a surprise Go To Jail, Go Directly To Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200 party on Sunday afternoon to celebrate that Jason will finally be where we all agree he rightly belongs.

Here's a few pics:

Thanks to Rachel and Pete for decorating while we were still at church. And to Rachel for the awesome cake.

Also, somehow in the excitement, I forgot to take pictures of everyone who came over. We did have people at the party.

Happy 4th

2008-07-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 4th of JULY

from the Hendrickson clan

Not only is today Independence Day, but it also marks TWO MONTHS since the day we met Jesse Yong for the very first time in the grand hotel lobby of Crowne Plaza Hotel in Zhengzhou, China.

It was 9:30 at night and Jesse had been traveling all day long in a van that broke down twice on the side of the highway. This is a child who had barely left the four concrete walls and small courtyard of his orphanage, a little boy who had never run around outside, never seen much beyond his grey world.

So when he walked into the glamorous marble and crystal-chandeliered lobby of a spectacular hotel with ceilings the height of Mt. Everest, about two hours past his normal bedtime, being pushed at two white people his caregiver kept calling "mama" and "baba," it is no wonder he was shaking like a leaf.

He was about the most scared little boy you can imagine -- literally shaking in his shoes, a total body tremor of terror. It made me start to cry, knowing how terrified he was and knowing there was nothing I could do to let him know it really was going to be all right.

Two months later, this is the happiest kiddo in the whole wide world!!!! He's smart as a whip, a Chinese Chatterbox, a huge love, and so unbelievably HAPPY to be with us. His behavior is marvelous, he has good manners, wants to please, loves us and responds excellently to our requests. Sleeps well, naps well, eats well, potties well, bathes well, listens well........ Are you getting the picture?

So if you know of someone or are yourself considering -- but are nervous about -- adopting an older child, feel free to use us/our blog as a positive testimonial to the wonders of older child adoption!

"Setting the lonely in families" as Proverbs says, is something very important to God, and it can bring such joy into the life of a child and the parents. Yes, it's the wildest, craziest, most upside-down world-turning adventure that will scare you half to death sometimes. But don't be afraid to listen to that voice of adventure!

Anyway, here are a few pics of Jesse LOVING the fireworks with his dad. He loved watching the explosions, listening to the cacophany of sounds echoing back and forth down the street, and -- most of all -- being held in Baba's arms.

Sunday's visit to Peterborough

2008-06-30T07:31:00.001-07:00

We left first thing Sunday morning to visit Jesse's grandparents again and see the cousins Jesse hadn't had a chance to meet yet in the Peterborough, N.H., area.

Jesse of course had coffee with Grandpa Dokey. Only a sip, though. Mama wasn't sure she liked the grinning "mmm hmmmm" and appreciative tummy rub Jesse enthusiastically gave to signal this was good stuff.

Baba thought Jesse's reaction was just swell, on the other hand. But then again, Baba would live with a nice Costa Rican blend continuously sluicing through his veins via an IV drip if he could...

A few pics with the grandparents:

Grandpa Dokey took Jesse on a riding tractor mower. The kid couldn't get enough! I couldn't get any pictures of him smiling, because he was watching/analyzing the entire time to see just which knobs did what and which levers moved what, etc etc. Wanted to commandeer full control of the vehicle...
Jesse got to meet cousins Erin and Courtney (and Jon Taylor, who was heading off to Boy Scouts camp for the week!)

And just because Courtney was adamant that I wouldn't do it:
here's her soggy dirty wet-grass foot for all the Internet world to see.

Jason took the picture after the thunderstorm drove us inside from mowing the grass. (Jesse was quite bummed to have his tractor experience cut short)

Three generations of Hendricksons:

Oh, and lest we forget....

Ronin loves Peterborough. Lots of open grassy fields of green that stretch out indefinitely in every direction. Room to stretch those doggy legs and just RUN RUN RUN as fast and far as he can.

Plus there's new smells everywhere: moose, deer, skunks, other dogs, SQUIRRELS, and all sorts of woodsy creatures that freely wander the yard at night. Aunt Karen has been known to leave her shoes in the grass more than once. When you're letting your new puppy out for her constitutional at 1 a.m. and turn the corner to come a foot-and-a-half away from a 7-foot moose chuffing at you....well, that'll make you ditch your shoes and quick.

Anyhoo, last time we visited, Ronin found a particularly inelegant skunk nest. And Jason and I had to find a particularly huge can of tomato juice.

This time he found animal scat.

But I guess that even if he enjoys smelling bad, at least he can look handsome doing it.

Lions and Doctors and Lobstah, oh my!

2008-06-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

Whew! What a jam-packed weekend!

On Friday Jesse went for his first doctor's appointment. As a precaution, the dr had Jesse get all his vaccinations, just in case he didn't get them in China. This means that where most kids go in and accumulate their vaccinations over a period of time (i.e. getting one or two shots at a whack), poor Jesse Yong got SIX SHOTS all at once plus blood work. Ugh.

I tried to prep him for what was going to happen.

I pointed to my shoulder and went, "Poke, poke, poke! Ouchie! But it's OK." I did this over and over again to my own shoulder and then to his, pointing to the door and telling him that the lady was going to come back and do this.

You might think, there's no way he would have the remotest idea what I was talking about, but you would be wrong. He completely understood. Maybe a little too well.

Because when the nurse came back in, she put the six needles on the counter and Jesse looked at them and instantly melted. He was shaking his head no and whimpering and hot tears started pouring. I felt so bad!

Anyway, it was a rough morning, but he was a trooper, so I figured I'd reward him with a treat from the Golden Arches. I got a small fry and a cheeseburger and went back to my folks' place for lunch. Jesse had a few fries with ketchup and seemed pretty excited. Then he took a bite of the cheeseburger and handed it back.

"All done!" he said, shaking his head vigorously. "Banana!" He started to pointing to the fruit bowl on the counter and as soon as he got his hands on the banana, Mama got that crap fast food pushed right back at her like he couldn't get rid of it fast enough.

Anyway, later that night he was still talking about his ouchies, "Oooooo! Oooooo!" with this pained expression and rushing all the words together on top of each other: "It's OK it's OK no cwyin'!"

_______________________________________________________

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL!!!

Every year my hometown has a festival the last Saturday in June. I've been going to it since I was 4, so it was pretty sweet to be able to take Jesse to it at the same age. Plus, our church had this cool Jungle Adventure booth like we did last year, so it's neat to be part of this community event. (In fact, I got interviewed by a reporter for the Portsmouth Herald, so I'm hoping Jesse will have his first official "ink" time in a local rag.)

Anyway, our booth had three different activities for kids: they could design their own tote, maneuver our Jungle Maze with a blindfold on, and go on a Monkey Hunt (we built a huge Safari backdrop with monkey cut-outs that the kids had to shoot beanbags at to win cool prizes).

It was pretty sweet, if I do say so myself, which I can because I have absolutely no artistic talent to paint or draw. The credit for the monkey gizmo-contraption plops directly in the lap of the far more talented cast and crew at the church (Aaron, Adria, Shannon & Dylan: Kudos!)

This is Jesse giving it a shot:

But I think he had more fun just retrieving everyone else's beanbags, so of course we exploited that for all it was worth:

He LOVED helped his dad put the monkeys back in place after they'd been shot and flipped over on their hinges. He was all about getting them ready for the next kid to shoot at:

This is our friend Tyler working through our Jungle Maze before the hordes of kids descended for the day:

And this is Cousin Abby showing off her super-cool new tote:

After naptime, we headed over to my work summer party and Jesse got his first taste of Maine lobstah. His respose?

"More please!"

OK, in this next picture it looks like he's sulking. He's still figuring out whether he likes The Pool or not. As you, dear reader, know, his first experience was good overall, but he still has a love/hate thing going. We went to a friend's house this past week and they have a bigger pool, which I figured he'd be pretty excited about. Yeah, well. He pretty much freaked out and hollered most of the time. But I think it was just because he wasn't really in the mood that day because they weren't real tears, just a whole lot of noise. And by that I mean a whole lot.

I'll keep you posted as summer progresses.

A special shout-out

2008-06-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Long before we traveled to China, way back in October when we first knew we would be adopting Jesse Yong, one of my co-workers at Civil Consultants took me aside a few days after we made the announcement. Neil needed to let me know that Jesse Yong had a friend desperately waiting to make his acquaintance.

Keep in mind, we -- Jason and I -- had barely gotten pictures of our little boy, and wrapped our minds around this whole concept. But Neil's little 3-yo boy Drew was already jabbering away about "me friend from China." (too cute!)

Day after day he would ask his dad if "me friend from China" was here yet. No, his dad said. It would be a while. Okay, maybe tomorrow, Drew would say, shrugging his shoulders. This went on for some time (keep in mind this was back in October....we didn't get Jesse until May, which is basically forever to a 3yo mind.)

Then Drew's thought processes shifted a bit. He figured it was taking quite a while, so he would have to start planning. He set aside a special toy that was not to be played with by himself or anyone else; it was for "me friend from China." The toy pile began to grow each day with new toys that were sacred -- Drew refused to play with them until he could play with "me friend from China."

Drew's little 18-month-old sister would occasionally wander over to the segregated items. And got summarily thumped across the head for her effort. "NO!!!!" he would cry. "Toys for me friend from China!!!!"

By this point, it was February, and we were still in for a long haul. I started to seriously be concerned for the health and well-being of the residents in Neil's household. Drew's mom could not put the toys away; little sister Lily most definitely could NOT TOUCH; Drew himself would not play with them.

Finally the day came and the Hendricksons went to get "me friend from China." Then finally they were back in the States. Then finally they were not jet-lagged and could start thinking in coherent sentences again (sort of) and getting back into life.....

Then Drew got ebola. Well, not ebola exactly, but some horrid vomity runny nose stomach thing that's just not fun.

But then he was better!!!!

But then Lily got it.

So eventually, at the tail end of June, the long-awaited day finally came for Drew and Jesse to meet at Civil Consultants' summer party this weekend.

Drew and Jesse spent some solid male bonding time analyzing The Pool (no, not the babes at the pool, it was really too cold for swimming. Well, except for Geoff's blue-lipped shivering kid who is insanely Arctic-ly inclined):

Then they took out water guns and chased each other and everyone else around the yard, dousing as many unsuspecting adults and children as possible (sorry, I didn't get any pics of that part, but you can see what's in Drew's hand).

Eventually the party wound down. When Drew learned it was time to go, he burst into tears. He didn't have enough time with "me friend from China."

So I promised to post a few pictures on the blog so that Neil would be able to console Drew until he would get to see Jesse again sometime soon....

Why I'm tired when I "shouldn't" be :-)

2008-06-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

There are some nights when I am just so completely exhausted it's unbelievable. These last few nights I can't seem to keep my eyes open past 9:00. Even 8:30 starts pushing my wakeful resolve. And I start wondering, Why in the world am I so doggone tired???

Jason reminds me that this is a period of transition that is emotionally draining. Fun, yes (most days...). Exciting, yes. Stimulating, yes. But definitely draining. There are times that try the most indominable of spirits (and although I enjoy a certain amount of joie de vivre, I'm not a particularly indominable spirit).

Some mornings our dear angel (Jesse, that is; not moi) awakes with a huge grin. Happy as can be. The proverbial clam, as it were. Everything is sunshine and roses and sparkly with new adventures. Other mornings he awakes with what my sister calls the Sawyer Scowl (for the benefit of those Lost fans reading this).

On those mornings of the latter variety, Jesse slumps on his bed like a boneless mass of inertia personified. He awards my pre-coffee bleary, gearing-up-for-this-new-day self with his crankiest can-you-SMELL-that-bad-smell? face.

Joy oh joy, I think to myself. Here we go.

Putting my best emotional foot forward, I smile warmly and wish him a bright good morning with lots of happy tones in my voice.

He drones on and on in continuous soft little whiny sounds. Low-grade fussy noises that have this amazing ability to grate.

Suddenly the simplest tasks are insurmountable. You'd think I'd asked him to climb Mount Everest or negotiate peace in the Middle East. If not summarily impossible, pretty darn close.

We find ourselves unable to put socks on. We can't get our arms out of our PJ top. Tears form when can't put the tongue of the shoe in the right way and it bunches up inside the velcro. What is velcro? Suddenly we've never seen such a thing before.

The best is when we suddenly don't understand the basic English words and phrases and commands that we have shown many times that we understand perfectly. Instead of cooperation and obedience I get blank stares of feigned incomprehension.

Go to the bathroom? Can't do it alone. accompanied by whiny noises

Put on socks? They hang limply off the edge of the foot. whimper whimper They just won't go on.

Of course one can't really get all worked up about it. One must be patient and understanding, realizing that even though dear wee one may understand -- perfectly -- he is still adjusting, too. It's gotta be overwhelming for him, also, to be thrust into a whole new life with these new adult roommates and their expectations.

And, to be honest, some days we just don't feel like doing the things we're supposed to do. Sometimes we want someone else to do it for us. Or to be right there with us. Not because we can't do it on our own, but because for the first time in four very long years, we don't have to.