It's Christmas Time!

Wow! What a year! I can't believe Christmas is here already! We've been waiting to celebrate this beautiful Holy day with a child for about 5 years and it is finally here! I've added some pictures that we put on our Christmas card that I thought were pretty cute (of BJ at least)!

BJ is completely loving the lights, glitter, and excitement of the season! In fact, I have to say that it hasn't necessarily brought out the "best" in him. I suppose the time was coming, "the "fun" two's!" He is growing every which way by leaps and bounds and we are relieved to see that yes, he is a typical two year old toddler! His birthday is the day after Christmas! (fun party being planned) He literally grew an inch in 1 1/2 months and is back to sleeping 12 hour nights and 3 hour naps. My little boy might out grow me by 5 years old! LOL! He is picking up skills lightening fast like putting on his shoes, taking off his shirts, walking backwards, running (very cute to watch, he stays motionless for awhile almost like he's thinking about his getaway plan, then he picks up his legs like in slow motion and eventually begins to "run" giggling the whole way! It's hysterical!), climbing (on everything if can do it without mom and dad watching), and pushing toy cars all over the house! It's been amazing watching a baby turn into toddler in 3 months. Oh yes, did I mention he's getting into EVERYTHING! There is nothing that compares to being parents to a toddler! I love it and we are really excited about Christmas day and his birthday. He already had some early Christmas presents and let me just say, it didn't take him long to learn how to open those presents! Of course the wrapping paper and boxes were more exciting then the present inside!

With all this excitement, I have to admit that Christmas so far, hasn't been as beautiful and sacred as I was planning on it to be. As most of you know, Christmas has become somewhat of a "rat race" in our country. It disheartens me as I know this is what God never intended for it to be like. In fact, this is the complete opposite of what should be going on right now. There's nothing like the stress of life to remove the pure and miraculous joy of this season. This year I have noticed it more than ever before because things don't get done as timely and in an orderly fashion like they used to. Yes I know, welcome to motherhood, right?! But it isn't so much that as it is all the "hustle and bustle" that seems to be grabbing our attention and stealing our joy. All I really want grabbing my attention is our precious miracle child. Just by looking at him, he reminds me everyday of our blessed Heavenly Father. So this Christmas Season, we have decided to relax, not worry about gifts, "to do" list, bills, etc. (why worry about them, it's not like they're going anywhere right?) and just immerse ourselves in the amazement of life and be grateful for our health, family, and everything we do have. After all " From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given to Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ!" John 1:16-17 Who am I to argue with this?! From our family to yours, may you all have a blessed and RELAXED Christmas season as we truly reflect on the real meaning of the Holiday. God Bless You and Merry Christmas! Love You All! James, Melanie, and BJ

Praise The Lord! Another answered prayer!

"Give thanks to Him and praise His name! For the Lord is good and His loves endures forever, His faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:4-5

We feel completely blessed in that today we received GREAT results back for two of BJ's major tests. The first was for the possible "premature" fusion of his skull. Although the records from Poland stated that everything came back negative our pediatrician wanted to make sure. She felt that his head was shaped odd enough, to warrant some concern to have it checked out. So we made an appointment with a cranialogist, had a CAT scan done and today found out that there is NOTHING wrong. In fact, the doctor said that his head shape was fairly normal and that it would eventually round out as BJ grew! He even said his bossing (protruding forehead) would even itself out over time. This is GREAT news!

Another test he had done was for his cardiologists (remember, the one who speaks Polish! :). In BJ's Polish records it read that he had some slight atrial flutters. So BJ had to wear a "halter" for 24 hours. I was rather upset about this because supposedly there is no such thing as a "child's halter." So BJ had cables 2 feet long waded up under his sleeper with a pack the size of a large cell phone attached to a belt around his waist. I felt so bad for the poor little guy, but he was a trooper. You would've never known he was all wired up. He never tried to pick at it and did not cry or fuss a bit. I was so proud of him! Anyway, his cardiologists called us today and said everything came back completely NORMAL! This is also great news because it means his heart is perfectly healthy. Is our GOD great or what?!

This is all such a relief! The Polish reports were 100% accurate! So why did we have to go through all this to figure that out? Oh well! At least we have peace of mind! Blessings to you all and enjoy this Christmas season! I know we will and BJ is just loving all the lights and will experience his first snow fall tomorrow. I'll post pictures soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! Is it really that time of year already! I must say that this has been the fastest year ever! It seems like just yesterday that we received the call about a sweet little 16 month old! Now he is in our arms and is making huge strides! He no longer reminds me of a baby, but rather a very active toddler! We love it! He keeps us busy, but gives us so much joy! He is eating everything now and no longer wants us to feed him. He eats with utensils and can actually get more in his mouth then what lands on the floor or tray! He does somersaults (what a hoot!), walks backwards (or scoots), can throw a ball well (James thinks he found the next left handed pitcher for the Mets), climbs and slides down a slide, does sign language for please and more (thanks Caroline!), and can a hold a crayon to make a few scribbles. We are still working on his speech, but do notice some improvement in that as well. He can say momma as clear as day, Dada, hi, mine, and is trying to say a whole bunch of other words. We can tell he gets frustrated at times when he is trying to get us to understand what he wants!

In other news, my class is still going well, but I miss my little man like crazy! I'm not quite in tears, but I latch on to him about as much as he latches onto me when I get home. He seems to be bonding quite nicely with both James and I. He loves playing with his daddy about as well as he likes cuddling with me! He still loves people, but in the end will always want to come back to mommy and daddy. This of course makes my heart sing!

Well, tomorrow is his first official family holiday so I am interested in how he will respond. I'm sure he'll do great because he loves all that attention. He will probably also think he's in paradise with all that food! I'm sure I'll get some great pictures! In the mean time, please enjoy these! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post, but time is just available anymore! Before I know it, it will be Christmas! I can hardly wait! We have already taken BJ to the Festival of Trees and he was simply awestruck! I'll put those pictures in my next post! Enjoy your turkey day!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

B.J.'s Certificate of Citizenship!

Today BJ received his Certificate of Citizenship! We are so relieved as we started to think it would never show up! This certificate will be the proof we need to apply for different things such as passport, readoption in the U.S., etc. We already have his social security number so that is one less step we need to take. Although he was a citizen upon entry into the U.S., the only proof he had of his citizenship was his Polish passport with the U.S. visa stamp. Now he has documentation. It is so exciting to see these loose ends being taken care of.

On another note, poor B.J. has been sick for over a week with a runny nose that doesn't quite and a whole lot of congestion. On Thursday, he came down with a 103.5 fever. It terrified me as I have had several students out with "Influenza a" and fevers of 106! Yikes! We called the doctor right away, but there wasn't much she could do. She checked his ears and throat and they did a strep test, but it all came back negative. She said to keep the fever down and if he still has it in a few days we need to take him in to get some blood drawn. Poor little guy, he is working on his fourth day with a fever, but at least we have been able to keep it down. Hopefully he'll wake up and it will be gone! No trick-or-treating for him this year, although we did have a darling costume for him that he absolutely hated wearing. I suppose it all worked out fine for him. He isn't old enough to realize that he missed something and he didn't have to wear that "dreaded costume!" Although, mommy has to get pictures so you can bet that costume will show up again sometime soon!

On another note, James is recovering nicely from his surgery. He says his heart feels smoother than it has in years. That is a "very" good thing! Thank you for your prayers and concern! We know they were working!

The Article Was In!

BJ's article was in the paper this past Sunday! You can view it at the Register Mail. The whole top portion of the page was a big picture of BJ peering into the plastic lid of one of his toys. It was so cute! The above is a picture from the online article! The article, I feel, was well written, but there were several discrepancies. The time frame was a little off and with some other minor things. However, I was disappointed as the paper left out everything we said about our faith and the importance of our church family. I'm not sure why, as the views in the article were strictly ours and obviously not those of the paper! So why would they leave it out when we mentioned several times that God was the most important aspect of our adoption? I have to admit that this was/is very frustrating!

On another note, we have had a very busy week. BJ has (undoubtedly) come down with his first cold of the season. We had to take him to the doctor Friday because the poor little guy could hardly breathe he was so congested. She put him on an antibiotic because he had the beginnings of an ear infection and because she wanted to be safe and make sure his cold didn't turn into something worse. So as of now, he is a "Vick's" baby! He's so little that they won't let him take any decongestants! So we are constantly sucking, wiping, and rubbing on Vick's baby vapor rub! Poor little guy. I have a feeling this will be a long winter for him!

Yesterday, James finally had his long awaited heart surgery. It sounds worse than it was, but it was pretty scary. James was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response about three years ago. He was treated with medication, but that didn't always work. He was told that the Ablation surgery would take care of it, so they finally got him on the waiting list. Monday was the big day and the doctor feels like it was a success! However, only time will tell!

BJ is doing better with the whole separation thing. But he is still very "lovey" when I get home from work. I have to admit, I love it! What can I say, he just melts my heart! We also had some announcements made that turned out absolutely adorable! A company called the First Glimpse designed them for us and I'm adding the link so that you can see it! They added the Polish flag and a really cute poem. Here is his announcement! Hopefully I don't get in trouble for putting this on the blog! Anyway, I recommend them. They are really good and very timely!

Thanks again for the support, love and prayers! We feel very loved!