Much Needed Update

The past few months have been so busy.  I thought I should update our blog.  Trit is doing very well now.  He sleeps through the night & he is eating better.  Luckily, he has not had any real health issues the past few months too.  It is amazing to think we have only been home for 6 months & that I feel like Trit has been a part of our lives forever.  The only issue he still has is when I drop him off at daycare.  He is still pretty pitiful, but when I pick him up in the afternoon he seems to be having a good time.  He seems to be bonding very well with all of us now & even seems to really enjoy his time with Daniel.  Trit now loves to get into bed with his sister in the early hours of the morning.  The first couple of times he did this it scared Daniel & I until we realized he was in bed with her.  It is very sweet though & he does seem to idolize his big sister.
My Mom is also doing great now.  She did not need chemo for the lung cancer & healed quite well from her surgery. 
My twin sister had her little baby boy yesterday.  He is so precious.  Trit met him for the first time last night & I am not sure he knows what to think about him.  He loves his other cousin, so I am sure he will love the baby too. 
I have been concerned about the flooding in Thailand as I am sure many others are right now.  I checked in with Holt (our adoption agency) this week about some final paperwork & asked about the situation.  The flooding has impacted a lot of the foster families & I am sure Trit's foster family has been affected.  The home they live in is very close to the river.  We even saw on CNN that they were evacuating in Bangkok in some areas including Dusit Zoo which we visited in April.  My thoughts & prayers are with those families.    My prayers/thoughts go out to those in Thailand as well as the families here waiting to travel to get their little ones.  I can't imagine how emotional those families must be right now.

As always, I can say I am truly blessed.  This has been such an amazing year.  I am adding some pictures including some from Trit's 2nd birthday.  He LOVES Mickey Mouse!

Kisses Make It Better

To say our life over the past few months has been chaotic, I  feel like is an understatement.  Trit is truly such an amazing gift/blessing to our family, but his life since he has been with our family has not been an easy one.  Just to update everyone, he did finally see the Hematologist regarding his G6PD (www.G6PD.org).  While it did put our minds at ease to see this specialist, we know that we will always have to be vigilant over our son to ensure that while well meaning, someone does not feed him food or prescribe medicine that would cause him to go into hemolytic crisis.  We recently almost had an issue with this & with the medicines being almost 4 pages long it is so easy to see why.  I will ALWAYS double check any medicine prescribed/given to my son.  Trit also had the surgery back in early June to fix his teeth & for his circumcision.  He has recovered nicely from those.  The teeth were a necessity which is what made us go through with the other surgery, but I later was second guessing our decision.  Now, to bring you up to date within the past month or so.  Trit has been sick off/on for months now with congestion & fever.  This was warranting what seemed like weekly to bi-weekly trips to the doctor.  Our pediatrician had not been able to see into his ears though as they were so full of ear wax, but finally sent us to an ENT to get them cleaned.  Once they were cleaned, the ENT told us Trit had severe ear infections.  Trit has been on antibiotics off/on for all these weeks, but a stronger one was prescribed.  Still, the ears did not clear up.  A couple of weeks ago the ENT recommended surgery to place tubes in Trit's ears as well as to remove his adenoids so we proceeded with that surgery.  He did seem to improve with that surgery.  We are now dealing with yet another issue.  Trit started breaking out in bad hives this week.  Our pediatrician has been great as he has had to deal with me as this has made me overly anxious & terrified that Trit might go into anaphylactic shock.  He was so swollen the other night & looked absolutely horrible!  He is now developing bruised looking spots in the area of the hives.  So very bizarre & truly frustrating.  We think it is likely the antibiotic he is now on & last night after some research on the internet wondered if he might have serum sickness.  We are not sure & it could truly be anyone's guess as to what is  going on with him to cause this.  I worry about him so much & it has been difficult for me to sleep.

The other difficult thing is that through all of these past few months my Mother's lung issue has come to the surface.  (The lung issue came up when it was discovered she had uterine cancer a little over a year ago.)  So, in the same week that Trit had his surgery, my Mother had surgery as well which confirmed lung cancer.  She had her upper lobe of her lung removed & is now on the slow road to recovery.  We are hoping for no chemo & radiation, but are currently awaiting her pathology report.

Last night, I was checking on Trit & sweet Tenley went into his room with me.  She curled up to her baby brother as I was holding his little hand & gave him kisses on his forehead.  I began to cry because it was so sweet & we all know that kisses make it better.  I cried too because honestly I felt the weight of the world, but I also knew in that moment that love heals us & makes us better.

I've attached a picture of Trit on his 1st day of hives when his one little eye was almost swelled shut.  The other pictures of some of the past couple of days are not that pleasant so I will not post those.  I am also posting one of him having some summer fun with his cousins.  Life is not all bad:)

I can only hope that things will get better.  I continue to try to balance all of my personal life struggles with work & everyday commitments.  I have so many good things going on in my life too.  Tenley starts 2nd grade in about another week.  We found out recently that my twin sister is having a boy in November.  We also have a new baby in the Yates family.  Daniel's Peepaw seems to be recovering & doing a little better.

Summer Fun for Our Thai Surfer Boy!

I just realized today that it has been so long since I last posted an update.  Trit is doing much better these days.  Last week he actually slept in his own bed through the night for 4 nights!  This is a major triumph for us and we are hopeful that this will continue.  He still does not fall asleep until 9 pm or so & is awake by 5 am, but at least we feel he is getting a better night's sleep.  He also seems to be doing better at pre-school.  He only cries now when I drop him off, but now is not crying through the day much to my relief.  I already had so much guilt about having to go back to work & knowing he was so miserable at first was awful for me. 
He is such a precious little boy & we love him so much.  He is adventurous, fun-loving & can be quite the charmer.  I think our family is just as enamored with him as we are!  He also loves his big sister, but unfortunately he tries to give her "love bites"! 

Trit loves water & playing outside.  Too bad there are no beaches in TN., but he certainly loves any type of water & even tried to "surf" recently:)

Hugs & Kisses

It has been just over 2 months now since we first met our sweet son & he joined our family.  Each day is a lesson in patience for us.  He seems to have adjusted to us pretty well now & even seems to like Daddy a little better these days.  I had to go back to work a little over 2 weeks ago & things have not really gone that well.  I knew Trit would be upset when I dropped him off each day at pre-school/daycare, but I didn't anticipate that he would continue to have trouble throughout the day.  He does not do well with new people at all typically & there are just too many new faces all at once.  Then within 2 days of starting pre-school he became sick & missed some days.  He only went back 1 day last week & then had surgery last Friday for his teeth/urological.  We also weaned him off the bottle last week & we knew that if the bottle continued no matter how watered down it was that it would only lead to more issues.  The worst part too is that he still does not sleep through the night.  The worst yet so far was the other night where he woke every 30 minutes or so!  It felt like an episode of the Nanny as he would get out of the bed, we would put him back in, he would cry & then the cycle would start all over again.  I am grieving for him too because I can't imagine what he must be thinking & how difficult this must be for him.  He has been taken away from the only "Mommy" he has known his short life in Thailand, traveled to the other side of the world, & put into a new home with new parents.  Also,the language, landscape, weather & people are all new too.

The one thing that I can say truthfully though is that our family has fallen in love with this playful, sweet little boy and we could never imagine our life without him now.   Tonight, he smiled the most beautiful smile & put his little arms around me to give Mommy a much needed hug then a kiss.  No coaxing required:)  I can only hope with time that each day will continue to get better.

Wake Up Sister

We continue to be busy with settling in and adjusting.  Trit seems to be doing much better.  He still wakes up at least 2-3 times a night, but he is crying out less and less.  The past couple of nights he just seems to get up & try to find us.  Once he is assured that we are nearby then we can typically put him back in his bed & he will go back to sleep.  We are trying so hard to wean him off the night time bottle.  It is mainly water now with a bit of skim milk.  Last week we found out he has 4 cavities in his front teeth all due to still being on the bottle although we were not overly surprised.  He will need to go to Vandy to have the work done in the OR due to his G6PD & his age.  Poor little guy:(  He also will still need a visit to the Hematologist which is coming up soon.  He still is a very healthy & beautiful little boy. 

He is VERY active during the day & does not slow down for much of anything.  He truly is a little adventurer as they told us!  It is fun to watch him explore.  He loves being outside, anything related to water & enjoys music. 

I will have to go back to work in the next couple of weeks & I truly hope he will do well with his new preschool.  He seems to love other children & so I am hoping that he will enjoy school.  Since Tenley is in school all day the only person he has to play with right now is me.  He does seem to really like his big sister & loves to go in to try to wake her up each morning.  I know he is sad when she leaves each day. 

Busy Days, Busy Toddler

We have now been home over a week now & Trit does seem to be adjusting to our family.  Poor little guy though.  I can't imagine how things must appear to him.  We celebrated Easter with each of our families so he has visited so many places & everyone seems to be making a fuss over him.  He probably is thinking why do they keep dragging me to all these houses, why is everyone looking at me & snapping pictures & why do they keep handing me a bucket then telling me to go find hard plastic eggs???  He actually did okay though & seemed to love all the other "kid" family members that he met.
Today, he had his 1st doctor's appointment.  It went pretty well considering he had 5 shots & multiple vials drawn of blood.  We were glad to hear that for the most part he is a healthy little boy.  He still will need to see a specialist for his G6PD & hopefully, that will also better educate us about his condition.  Just praying that all of his blood test are normal & that all else is well with him.

I fall a little more in love with my precious son each day.  This afternoon I was sitting with him & we were just swinging along when he patted me then said "Mama" with a big grin on his face.  He has also been giving out "kisses" to me the past few days.  He is truly precious & I feel so blessed to have him in our lives.  Yes, I have not slept well in weeks & yes, I am constantly chasing after him & yes, there have been some very difficult times - but I really think it has all been worth it!  I know we have some difficult days ahead - we still have to wean him off the bottle, more doctor visits & eventually "Mama" will have to go back to work.  Right now though I am enjoying getting to know my son & trying my very best to take good care of him & hopefully, we will get through all of those stressful days ahead.

Jet Lag & a Toddler

Jet Lag & a Toddler - I think these are 2 things that definitely don't go together.  We have now been home for a few days & it doesn't seem like a normal sleep pattern is anywhere in sight.  Both Tenley & Trit have been getting up at 3 am or so ready to play, but that leaves us all ready to crash in a few hours.  We have gotten out of the house a couple of times.  Trit does seems to do much better with the stroller & car seat than Tenley did which we can only hope will last.
Trit had a rough night last night though.  We have tried him sleeping in his bed the past 2 nights.  Last night did not go so well.  He woke up several times crying or trying to get out of bed.  I even slept with him most of the night just trying to comfort him.  He was back to crying those pitiful cries much like he did on the early days with us in Thailand.  He has done okay this morning & I can only hope today will be a little better.   
It has been a rough past few days.  The jet lag is awful anyway & then on top of trying to acclimate a toddler to a new environment adds up to some pretty cranky adults (& 6 year old sister).

Trit does seem to enjoy exploring his new home & seems to adore Tenley.  I think one of his favorite people so far though is my nephew Grant.  Grant is 4 & Trit will follow him around & give him big hugs.  Trit is not so found of our dog Griffin.  Poor Griffin is so sweet though & I think he just wants Trit to like him so he will follow him around.  Trit tried hiding from him, but I think Griffin figured it out;) (see pictures attached)

Home Sweet Home

We are finally home after our long & very exhausting travel schedule.  Trit & Tenley did amazingly well.  They slept some & when Trit was awake let's just say he explored every aisle way of the plane quite nicely:)   I only slept maybe 2-3 hours on all of our flight schedule & I think it was about the same for Daniel too.  We all went to bed around 10 pm last night & Trit was up by 5 am.  He cried out a few times last night & he seemed scared.  He slept with us & we know that for now we will have to give up our rule of "no sleeping with Mommy & Daddy".  Poor little thing - yet another new place for him to try to get used to in the short time he has been with our family so we realize some sacrifice is in order. 
He has played off/on all day when he wasn't napping.  We all fell asleep this afternoon.  Tenley, Trit & I all slept in his bed which was an effort to try to introduce him to his bed.  It was kind of funny &  Daniel might have slept in there too, but it is only a full bed so he napped on the couch.  I am not sure how bed time will be tonight.  Typically, this is when Tenley is getting ready for bed here in the US, but it is actually morning in Thailand.  It will take a while for us to get our schedule back on track & for Trit to adjust.
We are so glad to be home & continue to pray that our precious little boy will adjust well to yet another new environment. 

Safari World - Bangkok

Yesterday, we went to Safari World.  They have an animal park & marine park.  It is mainly  shows which actually Trit & Tenley both seemed to enjoy.  They especially seemed to like the Orang Tuan show & Sea Lion show.  It was really quite expensive though.  Your ticket pays to get you in the park for the shows, but you have to pay for the only 2 "rides" they have at the park.  One is a safari ride in an air conditioned bus, but it was pretty neat as you see a ton of animals.  They have the largest herd of giraffes I have ever seen.  There is also a boat ride much like the Jungle Cruise at Disney which is extra too.  I would give it a "D" though as it cost almost $10/per person to ride & it was so cheesy. 

We had another scare yesterday too as this time poor Elaine fell & Wayne tried to rescue her so he fell too.  We were trying to find seats for a show & they went face forward down the steps.  I know our family will think we have beat them up so don't be surprised if greeting us at the airport!

Trit still continues to adjust nicely to our family.  He slept through most of the night again & wakes up ready to play.  He was so wild & playful yesterday.  This kid goes like mad all day long & again let me say it - HE IS IN TO EVERYTHING!  At least he does take naps though which Tenley never did.  I think we definitely found our Thai version of the Monkey King.  (This was Tenley's nickname in China because she was born in the year of the Monkey & she was in to everything too.  The difference with Trit though is that he is much more of a daredevil than Tenley though.)

Today, we leave to come home.  Our flight does not leave out until almost midnight though.  We are all ready to come home, but I must say that I am still dreading those long flights back to the states.

Floating Market Damnoen Saduak

Today we traveled almost an hour and half outside of Bangkok to a floating market.  It was quite interesting-kind of like a floating flea market.  The prices were ridiculous for many of the same things that you can find in other stores in Bangkok so we did not buy very much, but we all enjoyed the boat ride & the interesting sights.  We also visited a temple along our tour.  It was definitely an unique experience that I think our whole family enjoyed.  The other adoptive families traveled with us & I think they all enjoyed it as well.
Trit had another great day & is quite the charmer.  I know he always looks so serious in most of the pictures, but believe me he is laughing & smiling quite a bit the past couple of days.  He actually posed for a picture today & put on the biggest grin for the camera.  He really enjoyed our boat ride & truly seems to love the water.  Tenley had a great day as well.  She purchased a lovely pink umbrella to shade herself from the sun:)

Siam Ocean World & Jim Thompson House

Well, the past couple of days we have been busy, busy!  Trit has been doing well & we have been venturing out more & more.  He is a very active little boy & seems to truly enjoy stretching out his little legs:)  He still will only let me hold him though when he gets tired of walking & this is difficult at times as he is SO heavy.  He is a really big eater & weighs quite a bit.  Let's just say Mommy is getting a workout here in Bangkok.
We went to the MBK & Siam malls on Saturday.  Bangkok knows how to do malls.  They are all massive here - 7 to 8 story malls.  Siam is an amazing one with even a Lamborgini dealership inside along with Versace & many other high end retailers.  There is also an aquarium on the bottom floor, Siam Ocean World, & we took Trit & Tenley to it.  It was really nice & they both seemed to really enjoy it.  Trit especially like the boat ride, but wasn't so crazy about the life vest he had to wear!
Yesterday, we went to the Jim Thompson House.  He was an American entrepreneur who started a silk trade here in his adopted home of Thailand.  He built a beautiful home here in Bangkok, but disappeared mysteriously on a holiday in Malaysia to never be heard from again.  Trit & Tenley enjoyed the gardens.

Trit finally seems to be adjusting to our family.  He plays, he laughs & just as you would expect of any 18 month old - he gets into EVERYTHING!!  We are thrilled though as this let's us know he is finally comfortable with us.  I'll admit it is a FT job though.  Our room is not exactly child proof & you can't turn your back for a second on this little "adventurer"! 

Better days ahead

We had another really difficult day on Thursday.  Trit cried from about 2:30 that afternoon until after 8 pm which is when he finally went to sleep.  It was truly so pitiful to watch & absolutely nothing we did made any difference.
Friday, this cheerful, energetic, and fun loving little boy came into our lives.  He never stopped smiling, playing, giggling, etc. yesterday.  We even went to the Grand Palace & to the pool.  It was so fun to watch a new side of him that we knew was in there, but he was grieving so hard we did not see it until yesterday.
Last night was still a little rough.  He cried off/on all through the night, but this morning so far he is playing & seems to be okay.  I can only hope/pray that this will continue.
We were able to pick-up our Visa yesterday which was earlier than anticipated so we have changed our tickets so that we can come home on the 13th now rather than the 19th. (The Embassy will be closed for the Thai New Year & based on their comments to us we think may likely shut down due to our government's shut down.  All I know is that I am so thankful that we were able to get our Visa early before any type of shut down!)
I think we are all ready to come home, but I'll be honest I dread the hours of flying especially now that we will have Trit with us.  There is no sure way of knowing how he will do with the flight.

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts/prayers & looking forward to returning home soon:)

Sadness

I have not posted in a couple of days as it has been such a difficult time.  It has been so painful to watch our son mourn for his foster family.  The first full day with us he was truly so pitiful.  The second day was not much better.  He mainly cried & although there were moments that he would smile, he was still so sad.  He would go to the doors of our room or the driveway of the hotel or any way possible he could think of that might possibly lead him home to his foster family.  Our heads tell us with time that it will get better, but our hearts mourn his loss too & there is no way to get through this simply other than a day at a time.  We have been cranky, stressed & cried with him too.  Poor Tenley has been so great through all of this.  It has been hard on her too & she wants her little brother to love her just as she loves him.  She was thrilled tonight that he sought her out & gave her a hug.
Today was better & we even went to the Dusit Zoo for an outing.  Trit really seemed to enjoy the animals & Tenley was thrilled by a mini kid's roller coaster.  There have been long bouts of crying today too, but thankfully not the 3 & 4 hours ones like the previous days.

Please continue to pray for our family that we will continue bonding & for our safety & health as well. 

New Day

Yesterday was the day we took the children to the mall as they want the children to be exposed to a public place & get used to a busier & people filled environment.  Trit actually did well with us yesterday & actually did seem to remember us.  Things started off well enough, but the shopping mall experience for Daniel & I was stressful.  The social worker speaks very limited English & we were having a real hard time trying to figure out exactly what we were supposed to be doing, where we needed to go, etc.  We had a scheduled lunch after we finished purchasing items we needed, but Trit was tired before lunch finished & he made sure to let everyone in the restaurant know it.  I walked out with him while Tenley & Daniel finished & I definitely had an audience.  Thankfully, he finally quieted down.  I knew he was exhausted as it was past his nap time. 
After we finished with the mall trip, we came back to the hotel & had time to come up to the room with him where we hoped he would nap.  He is still used to taking a bottle when he goes down for a nap & they suggested putting another type of milk in his bottle.  Let's just say that didn't go well.  He finally fell asleep after Daniel sat down with him in front of a Tom & Jerry cartoon.  Poor little guy, he was so tired.
It was then time to take him down stairs where he went back home to spend his final night with the foster family.  This morning he will be arriving around 10:30 am or so & then will be forever ours!

I am attaching a picture of our entire group including 3 other families with their daughters & also it shows all the social workers. There is also one of Trit with Tenley beside him as they shopped for toys:)

The First Encounter

We all envisioned the first encounter to resemble something in slow motion, having arms outstretched with the "Chariots of Fire" theme music playing in the background.  We gathered in the meeting room of our hotel with the three other families with us all nervous with anticipation.  Will our son like us?  Will he remember us from any of the photos?  Then he walks into the room.  Our hearts race and our eyes are opened wide with excitement.  This adorable little boy is finally here!  As adults we anticipate the script and forget that we are not the writer.  Trit had been traveling for 90 minutes to get to Bangkok.  He traveled from a different area of Thailand than the girls that walked in the room before him.  He had fallen asleep and had just been awakened.  New shoes had been placed on his feet.  He entered a room full of complete strangers.  I have attempted several times to upload the video clip to the blog with no success.  I have now pasted the clip to my Facebook page.  From this brief clip it can be seen that he is curious, cautious, independent, smart, healthy, and handsome.  The script may have not been what we had foreseen, but it is still perfect.  Also, let us not forget that this is only a fraction of the whole masterpiece.  Welcome to our family.

Daniel

Short but Sweet

Today was a great day, but our family is exhausted!  I know all anyone cares about anyway is seeing Trit, so we will mainly just post pictures.  Things started off slow with Trit & it took him a while to warm up to us, but once he did we saw a very adventurous, fun little boy!  We think he is adorable!

We are here in Bangkok

We arrived safely here to Bangkok after a short flight from Phuket.  We checked in to the Pantip & had dinner tonight at the Mali restaurant near our hotel with a couple of the other families that are also here adopting.  Tomorrow, we get meet Trit in the morning & we are so excited!  We can't believe in just hours now we will finally be meeting our son for the 1st time.  We will visit with him a short while in the morning & then venture off to visit with him at his foster family's home.  He will have to stay behind & then we will return back to the hotel.  We will then visit with him again the next day & then on the third day he will come to stay with us (hopefully) for good!  Please pray for our family & that we will all bond well.
Bangkok is definitely a different pace than Phuket.  We have sweeping city views from our hotel balcony & it is a vibrant city that spans out in every direction for some distance.  Our hotel room is huge although I will say the Pantip is a bit dated. 
We will try to post some pictures later.

Phuket Town

Elephants & a Temple

It was still raining a little this morning, but in hopes that it would stop we decided to venture out anyway.  My dream of snorkeling around Phi Phi island was not going to be possible as the weather was still not cooperating, but at least we could get out and explore more of Phuket Town.  We had a driver take us around the city & it was pretty neat to see all the sights.  Tenley really wanted to do an elephant ride & the rain finally stopped so we went up near Big Buddha.  We had a great time riding our elephant up to a lovely overlook that showed Phuket Town, Wat Chalang Temple & out into the sea.  We got some great photos that I'll post.  After the ride, we went to Wat Chalang Temple.  Very impressive building although not quite ancient.  We then decided to head back to our hotel in hopes that the sun might stick around so that we could have some beach time.  Sadly, the closer we got to the hotel the darker the sky seemed to get.  The rain mostly held off, but it was a couple of hours later before it would clear some again.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening as we sat having dinner in our favorite Thai restaurant & watching our 1st sunset here.

We are all excited about traveling to Bangkok tomorrow am.  We are getting closer to meeting Trit & I think we are all ready for that day.  Even Tenley said tonight that she can't wait to finally meet him.