handsful

We took Dylan to Shriner’s in Greenville, SC for the first fitting of his new leg…new and improved leg, actually. This one has a working knee. It works like a regular knee. When you step down on the heel, the knee is locked. When you roll the foot and put pressure on the toes, the knee bends. It’ll take him some getting used to, but I think he’ll love it!

I attempted a couple of videos…click to see :)

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The appointment went long! It alternated between his “test drives” and Crissy and India tweaking, tightening, making sharpie marks on it, trimming it in the back, etc.

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Like last time, the leg will be finished (and covered in Dylan’s choice of Disney Cars design…) and sent via UPS in about 3 weeks. We’ll be in contact with them to let them know which address to send it to! We don’t want his LEG forwarded!!

Yes, the knee does bend when you step on the toes! He’ll figure it out or do a lot of falling. Probably both.

Forgive the fuzzy photos, we only had my iphone. Amazingly, I don’t look as dead as I felt here…bad cold is going on for-ev-er!

Can’t believe he needs a new leg after only 6 months. But, his little leg had thinned out so much, that it was basically knocking around in the now-too-large socket. And, we are excited about the knee. :)

2/19/2012

2/24/2012

Before we headed home from FL last week, we had to make a quick stop to have breakfast with friends.

Dylan’s BFF, Hope, lives in Orlando so we met at a breakfast place to eat, talk, and hang out with friends we all wish lived closer (hint, hint Amy…)

In the past, Hope has been a little hesitant about hugging Dylan, but this time she met us at the door (after her mom said she called out “it’s my Dylan!”) and gave him an immediate squeeze. Suhweet!

Dylan grudgingly ate most of his breakfast quickly, and then headed off the play. They were all over that play place.

There were lots of requests for posing…

Even for the moms, in this shamefully blurry photo.

Despite the approximately 9 hours between us, we WILL find ways to get these kiddos together…every chance we get. :)

I promised more info on our Celebrate Dylan night, so here goes…

Our normal routine for Gotcha Day is to take the special child out to eat, so we headed out. We had no clue where we were going…we asked Dylan what he wanted to eat and he said “a potato”. Okay, then.

We were headed to a casual steak place, but ended up here.

A long-time Lake Norman restaurant (37 years, we found out), we’d not tried it yet. And, given how much Dylan LOVES “Cars” these days, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Dylan prayed for our meal…he takes “close your eyes” very seriously.

Appetizers. Dylan tries his first oyster with cocktail sauce. He gave it a thumbs up.

No pictures during dinner because we were all stuffing our faces…catfish, flounder, shrimp, chopped steak, potatoes, and lots of sweet tea. Oh my, it was good. Dylan cleaned his plate.

Did we save room for dessert? Nah, but bring it anyway.

Cutting his 8-layer cake.

Yes, he did shovel it in one bite.

Our other Gotcha Day tradition is giving the child a book…maybe an adoption related book, maybe just something that the child is “into” at the time. We sign the inside of each, with some words of love and the date.

His eyes lit up when he saw this, he absolutely adores anything “Cars” these days. He spent some good reading time on his belly today, “reading” his new book.

We had such a fun night, eating some great southern food and honoring our little guy. How blessed we are to be Dylan’s mommy and daddy!

11/29/10 – taken an hour or so after we first met.

Today, we celebrate Dylan.

And, praise a God that would bless us with this bundle of cuteness.

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We look back on this last year and marvel at how easily Dylan transitioned to us – bonded with us – and, showed us love so quickly and easily.

We smile as he measures himself against the kitchen counter, realizing he’s getting taller. And, when he raises his shirt after cleaning his plate, showing us his big tummy.

Tonight, we took the crew out to celebrate…and, had a blast, as usual. But, it’s getting late and homeschool co-op comes EARLY. So, more details and pics tomorrow.

Happy 1 Year, Dylan…we love you!

Today, November 13th, 2011, we dedicated our son – Dylan YuHai – to the Lord. He was prayed for, prayed over, and shown lots of love from our church family…

What made it even more special is that November is Adoption Appreciation Month. Our friends were with us on stage, dedicated their adopted daughter.

Our church is very diverse, and adoption and foster care is just about rampant! Many of our friends have adopted or are currently doing foster care. Many have adopted through foster care, and we also have several friends with children from China, Ethiopia, Latvia, etc. Our pastor and his wife have 2 children, both adopted. This church-wide mindset is one of the reasons we love Grace Covenant like we do.

Adoption is a perfect picture of Jesus’ love for us. We, as believers, are all grafted in (adopted) into the family of Christ. We’ve done nothing to deserve this, it’s done out of pure and honest love for us, His children. Lainey and Dylan aren’t ours by birth, but they are truly loved by us, just as if they were. God ordained that the would be in our family, long before the idea of adoption was even on our radar. Thankfully, God’s plans are so much better than ours!

During worship, right before we headed to the stage.

A full stage! Our friends have 3 bio children, and have foster/adopted their youngest 3.

Dylan had no problems going to Pastor Farrell, and loved seeing his picture on the screen in front of him…

Is that me?!

I love how Lainey has her hands over her eyes, and someone forgot to tell Dylan to close his!

After the dedication, the Pastor asked us a few questions about our adoptions…thankfully, we knew the questions ahead of time and could kind of plan out our answers! Randy is completely comfortable talking in front of people. Me, not so much. But, I somehow made it through and was told I didn’t even sound nervous. They’re just being nice.

I made sure to put in a “plug” for the many SN children in China needing a forever family…I hope I planted a seed or two :)

This is the verse written on the card that we received at his dedication today… “Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” Psalm 69:34

Yu Hai means “of the sea” – Dylan means “son of the sea”.

We love you, Dylan, and are so very blessed to be your family!

He tells us all the time…”I’m BIG”

I’ve not weighed or measured him lately (gotta do that), but it’s obvious he’s growing. He eats much better these days, and is most definitely getting taller.

Favorite phrase these days? He says “dub-a-duh”. Which means “it didn’t”. So, if he falls down (which he does a lot), he jumps up and says “dub-a-duh hurt”, with a huge smile on his face.

The boy LOVES his overalls. Which, he calls, his “wovi-waws”. That’s just cute.

Happy 11 months, Dylan…can’t wait to celebrate a whole YEAR!