It can't be December already!

December 4th, 2012

Jack has been with our family 6 months today.  I can hardly believe it's only been 6 months because it feels like this little guy has always been part of our family.

It's been so long since I've posted that I hardly know where to pick up.  We had a great summer with Megan and Jack able to enjoy each others company and bond.  Since it was such a hot summer we spent a lot of time at the lake which is probably the activity the kids enjoy most. 

At the beginning of August Jack had his first cardiology appointment at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.  Prior to the appointment the nurse and I had discussed how much(or how little) they might be able to do at that visit as we still had some communication difficulties and didn't want to stress Jack unnecessarily.  Well, we needn't have worried.  Jack charmed them all and was unbelievably cooperative.  Jack's pulmonary valve is starting to become a little floppy again and his pulmonary artery a little stenosed, but he will be reviewed yearly and we were sent home with the assurance that Jack did not need to be restricted in any way...not that we cold slow him down anyway!

Megan started 1st Grade in September and that was a sad day for Jack.  He kept saying over and over, "where Megan go, where Megan go?".  Our reassurances that she would be back in a few hours were lost on him.  After a few days he settled and realized it wasn't so bad having Mom to himself all the time after all.  Around this time his language started to expand from two word phrases to longer sentences.  Now he has little difficulty getting his point across!

Even though Jack has had many tumbles, his first need for sutures came after some wild dance moves with Megan.  Poor Megan was more traumatized than Jack as she bravely put pressure on his forehead while I raced to the clinic.  Jack was silent while Megan was screaming that the "blood is STILL coming out..and we're going to get caught by the police for speeding..and you should have called an ambulance...they are the only ones allowed to drive this fast".  Jack sat perfectly still while the lidocaine took effect and then he was sutured.

At the end of September Granda and Granny Moffitt came back to visit.  They has only seen Jack for a couple of days when we got back from China.  He did a good job of wrapping them around his little finger while they were here.  In October Granny Lee got to meet Jack for the first time, along with Uncle Terry.

Last Friday Jack has his first court appearance.  While he is at that age where he disregards parental rules at times, it was an appearance before the judge to essentially change his name from his full Chinese name to Jack Zanshi Moffitt.  He was a little in awe of the courtroom for which I was more than a little thankful.  He is an extremely inquisitive child who can navigate a laptop, an ipad, a smart phone...He even tried to get to the "innards" of Stephen's laptop by prising all but about 8 of the keys off.  Never trust a quiet 2 year old!

On Saturday we got the most precious gift in the mail of a CD of photos taken while Jack was in Maria's Big House of Hope in Luoyang.  The photos probably covered an 8 month period.  It was so sweet to see him interacting with other children.  In some of the photos it looked like he had the chickenpox.  These are not only priceless to us, but will fill in some of the blank spaces for Jack from his early life in China.

Today we had our 6 month post placement visit by the Social Worker to meet China's stricter requirements.  With all the questions, it was a time to reflect on how far Jack has come and how well he has adjusted in just 6 months.  Even tonight I was thinking how much more comfortable he feels going to bed alone.  For a number of months one of us had to sleep with him as he needed to touch someone.  Now he climbs into his big full sized bed and says "Goodnight".  Of course there are times that he asks for one of us to sleep with him but for the most part he falls asleep on his own and sleeps through the night.

We did discover that Jack is lactose intolerant.  With an adjustment to his diet he has had no more GI issues or pain associated with that.

Jack is quite short and it's hard to believe he will be 3 on Dec 22nd.  What a blessing he is to us and we hope to celebrate that 3rd birthday with all the love that we had stored up for the 10 months that we waited for him.  He is definitely home, where he belongs.