New pictures of Luke {an update from across the world!}

We got an update on Luke from his foster family!! Happy Happy Monday!!

Look at those big eyes!!

Look at that smile!!

18 month update!

Height - 31.5 inches (25th percentile) - moving into 24 m clothes!!
Weight - 22.5 lbs (10th percentile)
Shoe size - 13 cm - US sz 5.5

Note - we thought we were 'twinning' Luke with Jake b/c they are only 12 mos apart but, apparently, he and Emma are going to be the ones that look like twins for the first year or two! She is currently in size 6 shoes and weighs 24 pounds, LOL.

Physical status
His general healthy status is good.

Mental Status
His mental development is normal compare with other children on his age.

Motors
His motor skills development is good. He can walk and run freely.

Language
His language development is a bit delayed. He babbles a lot, but can not say words. Not surprising given he does not have tubes in his ears, may have temporary hearing loss, and has a cleft lip & palate!

Adaptability
He is living in foster family. The family has 2 biological children.
He is obedient to his foster parents. Yea says mommy!!

Mealtime and diet hobby
He has noodle at 7:00, has conjee and milk at 12:00, has milk at 16:00, has rice or conjee at 18:00, and has milk at 21:00. He has good appetite. He likes milk, fruits and yogurt.

Defecation and urination
He is using diaper only at night.  - HOLY COW!! Potty Trained already!?  God IS good! ;-)

Sleeping
Getting up at 06:00, going to bed at 21:00, taking a nap at 14:00-16:00. He has stable sleep.  Good news, we hope this continues after we take him away from the only family he has never known and traumatize him.  Poor guy.

Social Ability
He can understand adult’s orders and follow them well. He gets on well with other children. Yea!

Personality, Life habit, interests
He is outgoing and active. He likes outdoor activities. - Yea says Emma and Lexie (and the neighborhood girls who have all made pictures for him and are waiting for him to come home and play outside with them!).

Favorite toys and activities
He likes play water. Yea says Pat Lilley!
He favorite thing is his toy cars.  Yea says Dennis and Matt Lillie!!

No onto my private investigator mode...what do we see that wasn't said...

-If you notice the pictures are taken at a public park in a city. This means we are guessing he is living with a family in Fuzhou.  We know his favorite toy was his foster mamas cell phone so we kinda guessed that but this reinforced that to us. ;-)

-His foster family also has two biological children. This makes me think they got an exception from the 'one child policy' by either 1) purchasing an exception or 2) perhaps are a minority?  Any Adoptive Parents know of any other way?

-Can anyone tell what the necklace is around his neck? Is it a Buddha on a red thread?  Clearly his foster family loves him, right?!

-Finally, we love he is not all bundled up!  The pictures were probably taken in August (when it was hot there!) but, still, we didn't see any child in China wearing this little clothes while we were there - except for American children, LOL.

Looking at him more, we still see that something special in his eyes. That thing that made both of us know he was our son. Do you see it?!  We are just in love!!

Passports!

We went to USPS to get passports for Emma and Jake today.  We needed a ton of paperwork.  Emma still does not have a US Birth Certificate so I brought a bunch of stuff from China, just in case.  Jake also didn't have his official birth certificate (somehow I only had the hospital one). So I brought a ton of stuff for him too (very odd but the baptismal certificate was something we could use to prove we were his parents!). As usual, it was kinda a crazy trip (that involved a McDonalds stop) but I wouldn't expect anything less from hubby and me!

Passports should be here in 3 weeks.  Which is just in time for us to then send them to China to get our Chinese Visas. We need 5 visas because we are ALL planning on going to China (well, there will be 6 of us on the way home). We are hoping to stop in Kunming, the beautiful city in which Emma was born, and visit her finding spot, foster village, etc. We feel like the more we can understand about Emma's beginnings now, the better.  It is going to cost us an arm and a leg (pulled from our savings); however, as a friend pointed out - this is an emergency for Luke. He needs to come home, needs a family, and needs a few surgeries.  And frankly, I think Emma will say her knowing her biological history is worthy of a lot of cash too. ;-)

In other news...we also received an update from the US gov't. They have finally approved my adoption extension (see earlier post here on that topic). Meaning, we are now on target for November or December travel. Crazy fast but we are rolling with it!!  We are pretty excited about the idea of having Luke home for the holidays!

Here are a few pictures from today!

Emma's Passport Picture, cute right?!

Jakes Passport Photo - we love his exposed chest. Manly, right?! ;-)

This guy rocked - we had a bunch of random paperwork and he figured it all out

Large Package going to China!

We got the last item for Luke's care package completed today and we are shipping it off on Tuesday!  We ended up sending a clothing donation for the orphanage as well as a little package of items for Luke.

Orphanage Donation:

• 15 - pink/purple shirts, 2-5T
• 10 - pairs of jeans, 2-5t
• 10 - Black doggy shirts, 2-5T (these dogs looked identical to my sisters dog Scout, it was uncanny!)
• 3 soft carters outfits, 3-9 mos
• 3 gingham orange button down shirts, size 10-14

Care Package for Luke:

• Tie Blanket (made by me and a neighbor girl!)
• Michigan hooded long sleve shirt
• Photo Book with pictures of our family (you can see the book here!).
• Toy Cell Phone
• Toy Camera (that actually takes pictures and has video)
• Disposable Camera

Our hope is that when we pick him up he has a lovie with him. It broke our heart that Emma had nothing with her when she came to us and it took her forever to really learn to cuddle with anything. We hope Luke is able to have the consistency of 1 thing in his life - whether that is the lovie I send or a lovie they give him!

On the paperwork front - our i800 was submitted last week!  That means we are officially 7 weeks ahead of where we were in the calendar year with Emma. We traveled on January 5th with Emma so it is entirely possible that we could travel in December. That said, we still need our supplement 3 to be approved and our I-800 to be approved. Our officer seems to be extremely picky so we will see!!

Praying for Luke and all the kids in the SWI this evening. We are coming for you soon buddy!!

PS if anyone wants to send a donation to Luke's orphanage, you certainly can but it may not the best use of direct funds. We just sent it because we knew we were sending the care package to Luke so threw in some items as well.  ;-) Instead of donating to the orphanage, I would suggest sponsoring a child with Love without Boundaries.  

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/sponsor-child/

It is the best use of the funds and give children a chance to have surgeries that then make them 'adoptable' (i.e. a heart echo to prove to adoptive parents that a child's heart condition is operable can make a child suddenly become very 'adoptable'.).  We LOVE Love Without boundaries and it breaks my heart to see so many kids sitting on their sponsorship list!  

Here is the address for the SWI donations as well!

Social Welfare Institute of Fuzhou City

NO.1688 Wenchang Road 

Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province,China

Post code: 344000