Chillin out with big brother

I love my big brother

We didn't tell Paul William that Greg Jr. was coming home this weekend. We wanted to capture on tape his reaction to seeing his big brother. Here it is.

I'm Upset . . . hmmppphh!

Just prior this video Paul William was headed up the sidewalk on his tricycle, or "bicycle" as he calls it. He has a limit as to how far he can go before he must turn around and come back toward the house. As he passed that point I began calling to him to turn around. He didn't, he just looked back, grinned at me and kept going. I started after him and he just pedaled faster. When I caught up to him I turned him around and held the handle bars and told him if he did it again I would put the tricycle up and make him come inside. He then screwed his face up real tight, pointed his finger in my face and said, "I'm gonna tell my momma and you gonna be in trouble!" It was priceless!! I told him to go tell his momma and then the following exchange took place. I wish I had thought to tape the entire exchange but I was more concerned with stopping him.

Greg

Daily Life

It's the little things Paul William does that makes life with him in it so special.

Here are a couple of glimpses into our life now.

Paul William's favorite activity

One of Paul William's favorite activities is riding his tricycle.

. . . . one bite at a time

From paperwork to travel to arriving home to bonding and attachment the entire process of international adoption can be very overwhelming. The process is long and intimidating and doesn't end when you finally arrive home. This incredible journey just keeps going and going and going.

We are reminded of the question, "how do you eat an elephant?". . . . one bite at a time.

Sunday April 6 2008 marks the 2 year anniversary of our decision to take the first bite. It's really hard to believe that 2 years have passed. At times it seemed as though we would never be seeing Paul William and now it seems he has been here forever. We are lucky beyond description.

What prompted this thought? Well, last night we took another bite. Paul William was lying in bed with mom. They had read their book and mom was going to sleep. Baba walked by the bedroom door and Paul William said, "baba, turn off the light".

What's the significance of a 3 1/2 year old asking his father to turn off the bedroom light? It was the first time. He had never allowed us to turn off the light before he went to sleep. When we first came home we couldn't even turn them off after he went to sleep. He would immediately wake up and demand that we turn them back on.

Some days you take big bites, some days you take little bites and some days your stomach growls all day long.

Last night we took a big bite.

Thanks for checking in.

The Ogle's

Thomas and Paul William-

Here is our first attempt at uploading video.

It only took me 4 hours to make it work! ;)

Paul William meets Thomas

Paul William and Mama meet Thomas the Tank Engine.


Thomas is a really useful engine.

Riding the train pulled by Thomas.

You know you are an adoptive parent when:

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.

2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.

3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.

4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.

5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.

6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's "real" parents.

7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)

8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.

9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.

10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.

11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.

12. You know what the word "Dossier" means, and you can actually pronounce it!

13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.

14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

-Author unknown

8 Months and Counting

Last Sunday February 17th marked the 8 month since Paul William joined our family in China.

It's really amazing what a difference 8 months makes.

Paul William goes to school everyday. Now he is even taking a nap on his mat when the other children do. He has apparently retired as the "nap police". Friday mama took him to a tumbling class after school and he participated and had a great time. This will be a regular Friday afternoon activity.

Since we last posted we have celebrated Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Rat. Paul William handed out traditional red envelopes with money and tangerines to all his classmates and his mom's students to celebrate. We ate a Chinese dinner that night then attended the performance of the New Shanghai Circus at the Princess Theatre in Decatur. There were many other families with Chinese children in attendance. The Circus was great. Some of the acts were better than those we saw at the Chinese Acrobat show in Beijing last summer.

We also had our 6 month follow up at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham. Paul William has moved from the 3rd percentile in height and weight when we brought him home 6 months ago to the 50th percentile now. He has grown 2 inches in height and his weight increased from 28 to 35 pounds.

We have added a slide show to the blog of some assorted photos since Paul William came home. Enjoy!

Check out my Slide Show!

Foster brother????

Monday night Mary Louise was checking email with Paul William sitting on her lap. She then went to the homepage of the Wuhan Adoption group and when the page loaded there was a picture of a little boy on it. Paul William looked at the picture and immediately said "dede" (little brother in Chinese). Mary Louise asked him if he knew the little boy and he said "yes, that's him". We questioned him further but he clammed up the way he does when he knows something but doesn't want to tell us. Something clicked in Mary Louise's mind and she took out the photo album with the pictures taken with the cameras we had sent to Paul William's foster family before we traveled to bring him home. After flipping through a few pages there the little boy was! Standing holding Paul William's hand.

The little boys name is Noah and he will be coming home to his family in Minnesota next month. We have contacted the family. We believe/hope this may be the younger foster brother that we were told Paul William lived with. Noah's mom said they have been told Noah lived in a foster home with an older foster brother. We will keep you posted.

Click here to visit Noah's blog.

Paul William meets Santa

Tuesday night December 18th, 2007 Paul William met Santa for the first time. We enjoyed dinner with our friends from the Decatur FCC group and the children each talked to Santa and received an early gift from Santa. Here are a couple of pictures.

Getting ready for Paul William's first Christmas

Here are few pictures of Paul William getting ready for Christmas.

Please help other children

Please click "Walk of Love" above to find out how you can help other "special needs" orphans find families of their own.

November update

Yesterday a friend gave Paul William the train table you see in the photos below. He was napping when they came by so we set up the train table so he would see it when he woke up. When he noticed it he asked us, "what is this in my house?". It was so much fun to see his reaction and watch his face light up the way it did. Thanks Andrea!

Paul William continues to amaze and entertain us. It has been 5 months today since we first met him. He is a different little boy than the one we saw in China in June. Yesterday for the first time he corrected Baba when Baba called him "Feng Feng", he looked at Baba and said "Paul William". He really has become Paul William. We will miss "Feng Feng".

It has been a few years since we experienced the fun and joy of Christmas morning with a little one. We are really looking forward to Christmas morning this year. We can't wait to watch him open presents. We wonder how he will react to Santa Claus. Mom's guess is that it won't be very well.

Paul William's favorite song to sing is B-I-N-G-O, except the dog has become a turtle. He is so funny! He also likes to sing She'll be Coming Round the Mountain.

When riding in the car he will sit in his car seat and have pretend conversations with Gege (big brother).

He still loves being held and snuggled. Especially when he wakes up in the morning. We hope that will continue for a long time.

We are sitting on the couch as we write this and just now he heard a train blowing it's horn near the house and he immediatley said "TRAIN"! It's really hard to describe just how much he loves trains. He's really almost obsessive compulsive about them. We have trains all over the house now. His other favorite things are a stuffed Curious George and Mickey Mouse that he calls "Shuma". That is apparently his Chinese word for Mickey Mouse or a stuffed animal. The only 2 Chinese words that he still uses are "Shuma" and "Baba" (daddy).

We are having a great time with him and still can't believe he's really here, although more and more it seems like he has always been here.

Pictures!

A trip to the pumpkin farm included a hay ride for (left to right) Nicolas, Benjamin, Paul William, Meg, and Grace.


Here is Gege being a good sport and posing for a picture with Meg, Paul William, Nicolas, and Benjamin.

Paul William loves trains and anything to do with trains. He even makes mom drive by the train yard on the way home from school each day.

He is the little boy with a thousand facial expressions.

Hangin out with Baba!

All I need is George, a bug box and 2 drinks!

Update from October

The other day a friend asked me if it felt like we were back to “ordinary times” for lack of a better way to put it. This past Saturday, I told Greg, “Now it really seems like he has been here forever.” He had eaten breakfast and had decided to go out on the back porch and then through the doggy door! During all this, he was talking (to no one in particular, you know just jabbering) and he was playing with the dog. (Well, the dog was hiding from him) Then we went to a birthday party for another friend from China, came home watched the Bama game, yelled Roll Tide, took a lonnnggg nap (yeah!, I worked on my lesson plans for this week).

On Sunday, he had a breakdown. Just like when we first came home. Long, LOUD, crying and screaming, run down the hall and hide from me crying and screaming. All I had done was tell him his cap was on the kitchen table. He thought he had left it in the car but the last time HE had seen it was at the grocery store earlier. He just collapsed and all I could think was We are back at square one. And I guess we will periodically have these type scenes until maybe one day they just go away.(that is my hope, anyway.)

Today, though we had a good day at school. I actually stood by while he told a first grader “an alligator bit my arm” and then he pointed to HIS LITTLE ARM!! Can you imagine?!! On the way home from school, he sang the “Toota Ta” song and could not stop talking about the train we saw on 4th Ave. He is train crazy, by the way. As we got home, our next door neighbor came out and gave him a picture she had taken of him. When asked who was in the picture, he replied, “Paul William”. This is one of the first times he has done that. When we got inside, he got out a yogurt, and of course, we have many spills because he carries so much under his little arm. Today tho’ he insisted that he clean it up and he got a paper towel and smeared it all around but he did a pretty decent job of cleaning. Then he fed the dog. He requested a peanut butter sandwich with his rice and soup. When I told him to be careful the soup was hot he said, “mine has cooled off.” Right now he is with me in GeGe’s room playing his xylophone and singing e i e i o very loudly. It is just amazing to me to see him grow. I hope this wasn’t tooo long or boring. I am really trying not to be an obnoxious parent but I don’t get to talk to any of you all near as much as I wish I could. Thank you for being such good friends. I love you all. Mary Louise

Update from the Ogle's

I know we haven't posted much lately, but there really hasn't been that much to post.

We have settled in at home with our new son. Greg Jr. is back at school in Tuscaloosa. Greg Jr. came home last weekend and he and Paul William were glad to see each other. We were afraid how Paul William would react when Greg Jr. left for college but it didn't seem to bother him although he did ask and look for him some. We were worried about his reaction when Greg Jr. left again but he seemed to take it in stride and has not seemed to miss him too much.

Paul William started attending the 3 year old program at his mom's school 3 weeks ago. He has stayed all day a few times and half the day most of the time. We are still working on getting on a better schedule for bedtime and getting up in the morning. Mom goes back to teaching next Monday and Paul William will be going to school all day with her. One funny thing that has been going on at school is that when nap time comes he refuses to lie down and instead sits quietly with one of the teachers. When one of the other children stirs or starts to wake up he tells them sshhhh and shakes his hand side to side indicating no to them. His teacher has dubbed him "the nap police".

The best improvements lately have been that he has been sleeping in the bed with us for just over a week now. That has really helped Mary Louise get better rest. He now seems happy about getting in our bed at night. The next step will be the transition to his own bed.

Food continues to be a challenge. Our pediatrician did say that no 3 year old eats real well. He definitely does not.

Over the last 10 to 14 days his language skills have REALLY kicked in. It almost seems like he just decided one day to start speaking English. He will repeat anything you say to him and picks up new words quickly. He is also beginning to string words together into simple sentences. We have taught him to ask for help instead of screaming at us. His comprehension of English is VERY good and his ability to speak English is improving daily. He is able to identify MANY different objects when he sees a picture of it in one of his books. It's really been fun to watch him develop. I feel like we are seeing development that with Greg Jr. happened over the first 3 years of his life compressed down into a few weeks. It is amazing to witness. Of course like any "new" parents we think he is VERY smart. He picks up on things and figures things out on his own very quickly.

Here is another funny story about Paul William and speaking English. While we were visiting her parents one of Mary Louise's aunts answered the phone. She handed the phone to Paul William and he said "hello". She then told him to "say hello in Chinese" and he promptly put the phone back to his ear and said, "hello in Chinese".

One thing that has not changed, and we hope it never does, is his dogged determination. He tries to do everything on his own before asking for help. He is also very adamant about how he wants things to be. Everyone must have the same food and utensils on the table at meal time. Never mind that most of the time he won't eat the food, he just wants to see it on his plate like mom and dad. Everything must be in its place and not changed.

This morning when dad was leaving for work dad asked for a hug and kiss, which he got, and when he started towards the front door Paul William became upset and then we realized he was telling dad that he forgot to hug and kiss mom too. Those are the things that make you realize how special this little guy is and how lucky we are to be his mama and baba.

The thing that is most encouraging at this point is not necessarily where we are in the adjustment process, but that progress and improvement happen on a daily basis. We still have our moments but all in all things are progressing nicely. We will have more issues to face in the future.

Thanks for checking in,

Greg, Mary Louise and Paul William

A new post . . . Finally!!

Sorry for taking so long to add a new post to the blog. We have suddenly found ourselves with much less free time on our hands than we were used to having! Wonder why??

Paul William is adjusting wonderfully. We are truly blessed to be this little guy's parents. We stop and pinch ourselves every day asking, "did we REALLY go all the way to China and bring him home?". It truly has been an amazing journey and it just keeps getting better.

Paul William is now sleeping with Mama, loves to take a bath, likes to change clothes and wear new clothes and is just as happy as can be. He loves to play with all his new toys.

We recently had our first photo session with a professional photographer. Her name is Carla Blankenship. We did the session at the Green Mountain Nature Trail in Huntsville on Sunday afternoon August 5th. It was hot as blue blazes outside and Paul William was not wanting to cooperate. I can't believe that Carla was able to get the pictures of him that she did. Some of the photos are posted in an online gallery. Click the link below to take a look.

http://www.carlabphotography.com/Ogle

We will try to post more later as time permits. HAH!!!