Apparently

Blogger thinks I take and post too many pictures.  This blog will no longer let me post pictures, so we've decided to start a new blog.  This blog will still be open, but we will no longer be posting on it.

Our new address will be:
http://familyformedbyadoption.wordpress.com/

I'm still getting used to wordpress and am not quite done with all of the different tabs that I want to have, but just give me a little time.

Hey Jincy- I even put a timeline for Charu's adoption on there just for you!!!  : )

Medical stuff...

It seems as though since we've arrived home from India, Charu has had all of the spotlight in regards to medical issues.  When we arrived home we had countless routine tests done on Charu and some of them were less than fun.  Results from the tests showed that she needed a round of strong antibiotics to get rid of hook worms and after getting rid of the hook worms we then learned that she also had giardia.  Not fun, but pretty typical for a child who lived in an orphanage for the first few years of her life.  Once Charu was feeling better and her appetite was picking up, Charu caught a nasty virus and had a seizure which landed her in the children's hospital for a few days.  In the hospital, they ran every test imaginable including a spinal tap.  After that time, Charu has stayed relatively healthy with the help of her endocrinologist (and her one visit to the cardiologist which turned out to be nothing) who regulates her Thyroid medication every three months.

Allie, being the oldest child, must have decided that she didn't want to be left out.  She's been having recurring UTI's and so her pediatrician decided to do an ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving.  I've had at least 40 ultrasounds through our infertility treatments and so I'm pretty good at reading them and knowing when somethings not quite right.  The day after Thanksgiving my suspicions were confirmed when our pediatrician's nurse called to inform us that Allie only  has one kidney and the one that she has is not working at 100%.  They referred us to a nephrologist back at the children's hospital.

On Monday, I took Allie to the nephrologist and he spent a long time talking to us about living with one kidney.  Basically, we need to work hard at taking care of her one kidney.  This morning we did bloodwork and urine tests to get a better look at how everything is working together.

That's about all we know for now.  We are going to pray that Allie's one kidney is relatively healthy and that it stays that way.  We also pray that we have little to no complications throughout her life.  Any prayers that can be sent our way would be much appreciated!!!

Blogging...

I think every person who blogs at one time or another wonders whether or not they should share pieces of information about their lives on their blog.  I've been faced with this dilemma many times over the four years that I've been blogging and lately I've been thinking a lot about the reason why I blog.

In the beginning, we I started our blog so that Allie's birth mother would be able to see pictures and updates on her whenever she was up to it.  We didn't want to overwhelm her with pictures on difficult days, but still wanted her to be able to see the child she gave birth to and loved so very much whenever she felt she desired.

As time went on, the blog became very therapeutic as I blogged about infertility, adoption, and life in general as a mom.  As we began our second adoption, this blog began to update and inform our family and friends about our lengthy journey to our second child.

When we found Charu on the Waiting International Children's List, we knew almost nothing about the adoption process in India.  This blog became a way to connect with other Indian adoptive families (there aren't a lot out there compared to other countries).

At this time, I haven't been blogging too much although so much has been going on in our lives.  I want to continue to blog because I adore the families whom I've "met" and love staying connected to them.  I plan on trying to blog more in the near future to catch our family and friends up on the changes in our lives as there have been many.

As far as what to share and what not to share.  Our daughters' adoption stories are theirs and we won't be sharing details of their adoption stories on the blog.  However, I do think it's important to document what's happening in their lives (even the difficult parts) and to share with other adoptive families whom may be going through or will go through the same things.

All in all, I'm praying that one day when our children read our blog they know that the whole blog was written to show how very loved and cherished they were even before they were in our family.  I want them to see that they WERE in fact planned...they were a part of God's plan which is even greater than anyone's plan here on Earth.  I also want our precious children to know how loved and prayed for they were and are not just by us, but by so many loving and wonderful people we've met along the way.

Happy Halloween!

Prayers being sent across the ocean!

Before we left for Kerala last year, many people told me that there would be a few children in the orphanage that would capture our hearts and we would forever pray for them.  I knew it was going to be hard for us to be in Charu's orphanage and love on all the sweet, beautiful little kiddos and then leave without them.

As we walked into Charu's orphanage and began meeting and playing with all of the little ones, two precious little angels (other than Charu) quickly captured our hearts.  For the next two days, we loved on all of the little ones that were in Charu's toddler room.  Time and time again, these two little lovies ended up in our laps.  Although many of the children in Charu's room were matched with families, we were told that neither one of these two little angels had families.

Since our time at SKB Cory and I prayed like crazy about both of the two children (S & N) whom had captured our hearts like I never could have imagined.  We prayed every night (and continue to to this day) specifically for both S and N.  I kept begging Cory to allow me to check with CHSFS to see if there was any way that we could adopt one of these two little ones.  Cory assured me that we needed to wait before starting another adoption and I knew he was right.  In my heart I just prayed that S and N would have families soon.

Fast forward to May when my sweet bloggy friend, Mer, e-mailed me and told me about a woman (J) who had found her and was adopting from SKB.  I was so excited to hear about J and soon was in contact with her.  It didn't take long before I learned that sweet, beautiful little N was J's daughter!!!!  N had a family!!  I literally cried tears of joy!

It's been so fun being able to join in on J's process of adding N to her already beautiful family!!!  And get this... J left yesterday to bring N home!  Sometime tonight when I'm sleeping J & N are finally going to meet!!!  I get choked up just thinking about their first interactions, hugs, oooooh-ma's (kisses), and all the other wonderful things that J is going to experience.

If you have a minute or two today and over the next couple weeks, could you please say a prayer for sweet J and precious N?!   This journey is one that has many ups and downs and I just pray that God can be there to support J in every way possible.   I'd also like to ask that you pray that little N's heart begins to open up to J early on...

Thank you so much and I hope I can share more about J's journey someday!!

Busy, busy, busy...

I've wanted to blog about a hundred times over the past month or so, but it's hard to know what to write about lately AND it's even harder to find time to sit down and write.

Things here have been going well.  I watch two of the sweetest little boys during the week and the girls absolutely adore both boys.  It's been very good for both girls to have other kids to play with and Charu's speech is exploding!  I only wish that everyone was able to see how far she has come...it's truly amazing!

We had Charu's 3 year old doctor's appointment in September and her doctor was AMAZED at her speech and how far she's come!  Charu has grown about 3 inches since coming home, however she's still only 24 lbs.  We are hoping she starts gaining some weight in the near future.  Her doctor commented on Charu's talking numerous times and was completely blown away that she was meeting all of her developmental milestones.  This is coming from a little girl who wasn't meeting any of them just 9 months prior!  Charu is amazing and Allie is such a wonderful sister/teacher/playmate for her!  They are going to be such amazing friends through the years!

At her doctor's appointment, Charu's doctor did notice that she had a heart murmur.  Up until this point, Charu had never sat through an appointment long enough for a doctor to listen to her heart.  There were some red flags that our doctor noticed and she referred us to a pediatric cardiologist.  We had to wait two weeks before we could get in to see her, but were beyond relieved when they said that although her murmur was very noticeable Charu's heart is healthy!  BIG RELIEF to us all!  That night we were finally able to sleep!  Thank you God!  Two days later we headed back to the Children's Hospital to see Charu's pediatric endocrinologist who said she was growing and healthy.  He, too, commented numerous times at how far she has come!  Such a wonderful thing to hear!!!!

Charu is close to being potty trained!  She has an occasional accident, but does really well throughout the day.  We also got rid of her bottle.  When we picked her up from her orphanage, they still had all of the kiddos on bottles (I think for the calories).  Many adoptive families that have been there, done that advised us to not push getting rid of the bottle and/or potty training too early...so we just went with it and things seem to be going really well.

Allie has started back at school and is LOVING it!  Believe it or not, she has gotten in to trouble a little for talking too much...not sure where she gets that from!  LOL!  Allie is over the moon in love with any type of art project, coloring/drawing, and scrap booking with mom.  She is so creative and has a very vivid imagination, I can't wait to see some of her writing projects in first and second grade!!!

People who know Allie know that she is probably one of the most inquisitive little kids ever.  She is constantly asking questions about the world around her and wants to know how/why things happen and work.  Over the past few months, she's started to ask more questions about her birth family and her adoption.  We've always been very open with Allie about her adoption and really want her to know that she can come to us with any of the things she's feeling over the years.  There have been some pretty tough moments and some difficult questions, but I'm sure that there will be many more over the years.  So far, I don't think that Cory and I have been too caught off guard and we just pray that over the years God continues to heal both of our daughters' hearts.

Allie and I are very excited because we are going to have a girls night in a couple weeks.  Her and I are both going to get our hair cut and our nails done together...a long overdue mommy/oldest daughter day!

I was asked to do a long term subbing position at the school I used to teach at.  The position would have started in February and would run through the rest of the year.  Although I do miss teaching, Cory and I decided that it wasn't what was best for our family at this time.   Our lives have changed so much over the past year and the things that I used to think were important all of a sudden aren't.  It's amazing how our priorities and our minds can change over time!

With that, I think I've sort of caught most of you up on our day to day life.  We are busy enjoying every day and praying that after the first of the year we can begin our next adoption.  There are big things coming for the Paulzine family...I can feel it!!!!

Two little sweeties

Our little family...

Oh how I love my loud, passionate, sweet, spicy, loving and sometimes even a little bit crazy family!  Our girls are two of the most energetic and talkative little girls on this planet (or maybe it just seems that way at times), but even when I'm not sure if I can stand another rendition of "5 Little Monkeys Swinging From A Tree"...I always know that we wouldn't want it any other way!  

My camera is FINALLY back...

My camera came in the mail yesterday and I'm SO very excited to have it back to take pictures of our little sweeties!!!

Oh how we adore these two girls!

OFFICIALLY a family of four!

We are excited to share with all our friends and family that today Charu legally went from Charu FNU (Family Name Unknown) to Charu Faith Paulzine! We will no longer have to mark the box that says we are her guardians...we are now and forever her parents in every sense of the word! It feels amazing to, after almost four years, have our second adoption completed! God has blessed us twice through adoption and we look forward to seeing where He leads us next! Thank you again to all of our friends and family for all of the love, support and pure love you've shown us!  This journey would be impossible without each one of you...I truly mean that!

They LOVE animals!!!

We went to visit a friend's house last night who raises puppies.  He had two sets of 5 week old puppies and the girls were instantly in LOVE!  Charu was bouncing from one puppy to the next and she struggles with the concept of being gentle even though we practice and work on it almost daily.  Allie was so gentle and loving with the little puppies and is still talking about them this morning!  Here are some iPhone pictures for you...sorry they aren't the greatest.  Oh Nikon...I miss you!!!

Favorite things at age 3!

I wanted to get all of these posts done ON Charu's birthday, but there never seems to be enough time in the day and my blog often times takes a back seat to life!

Charu's Favorite Things At Age Three!!!

Foods:
Sweet corn
Pasta
Watermelon
Grapes
Strawberries
Sugar snap peas
Lettuce
Hotdish
Chicken
Popcorn
Poptarts
Pancakes
Waffles
Ice cream
Anything sweet lately...she has her daddy's sweet tooth I think!  :)

Drinks:
Water
Iced Tea
Lemonade
Almond Milk

Activities:
Coloring/water colors/finger paint
Crafty type stuff like cutting with a scissors & gluing the pieces together
Water table play
Swinging
Riding bike
Playing with our dog
Babies
Playing with play food & having tea parties
Anything with any animal!!!
Singing & Music

Songs:
Where Is Thumbkin?
The Farmer In The Dell
Tootie Ta
Twinkle, Twinkle
Old McDonald
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Five Little Monkeys Swinging From A Tree

Books:
Pinkalicious
Goodnight Moon
The Napping House
Any nonfiction animal book
Pete The Cat
5 Little Monkeys Books
Search & Find Books

Animals:
She ADORES any animal!  Cats, dogs, cows, pigs, worms, you name it and she LOVES it!  She even wanted (seriously wanted) to pet a snake at the zoo this summer! Oh how I wish I would have had my camera for that!!!

Friends:
Adores Allie (most of the time)
Loves the two boys that I watch during the week (Connor & Carson)
Hayden & Hallie
She warms up to most kids within about 10-15 minutes and even faster if Allie's there.

Games:
Loves any games on my iPhone especially puzzles
Fishing pool (fine motor) game

Cartoons:
Mickey Mouse
Olivia
Max & Ruby

Movies:
Beethoven
Lion King

Shapes she can identify:
Circle
Triangle
Square
Rectangle
Heart
Star

Colors she can identify:
Blue and sometimes green...we are working on it, but at least she randomly names off colors when you ask what color something is.  That's progress baby!

Charu's language has exploded and she is able to articulate herself quite well.  I understand almost everything she says, while people that aren't around her every day probably have a harder time once in a while.  The more comfortable she is in her current situation, the more she opens up and actually engages in a real conversation.

In the mornings, Allie wears whatever I pick out and doesn't really care.  Charu on the other hand points into her closet points her finger in the air quickly waving it saying, "That one!"  I'll take one out and say, "This one?"  She then quickly replies, "No, that one!" again waving her finger at the outfit she wants.  This continues until the outfit she wants comes out and she then says, "Yeah, THAT ONE!"  This comes from a little girl who would live naked 24 hours a day and 7 days a week if she could.  So we've talked about the fact if she picks out the outfit she then has to keep it on all day.  It works pretty well and so we just go with it for now.

All in all, Charu's personality depends on where we are and who's around.  At our house, she's a spunky and feisty little girl with TONS of energy who can at the same time be so very loving and caring.  As soon as someone else is crying or upset, she walks over and tries to console them.
When we are away from our home and in a new setting, she seems to warm up faster than she used to. It usually only takes her 10 to 15 minutes to begin being more open.  She still doesn't like men very much and she does better in small settings than she does in crowds.  Charu does get overwhelmed pretty quickly and then seems to shut down, which is really hard for me to see.

Overall, the progress that she's made in the past 9 months is remarkable.  We still have so many things that we need to continue to work on, but as I look at our youngest daughter I'm constantly amazed by how strong and resilient this little sole is!  We just love her so much and can't wait to see what God has in store for her and our family in the years to come!!!

Oh how she's grown!

We're so glad we were able to celebrate Charu's birthday WITH her this year!!!  

Charu's first birthday!

Charu's second birthday! 

She's wearing the outfit we sent her in her care package which warmed my heart!

Charu's third birthday!

Happy birthday sweet girl!!!

Our baby turned three today!  I have so many things that I'd like to write about, but don't have much time right now so instead I'm just going to post a few pictures from her party this past weekend.  I still don't have my camera back (and have been told it will be several weeks before I MIGHT have it back), so I had to rely on my sister to bring her camera to the party.  Thanks Teresa!!!