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Text of the page (random words):
drome day it is hard to remember what life was like before it took us down the path of down syndrome it is a part of our journey together that we never would have chosen for ourselves it is a piece of our journey that we were chosen to be a part of today is a day to honor respect love and cherish our children that happen to be enhanced with an extra 21st chromosome march 21st world down syndrome day why because our amazing kids have 3 copies of the 21st chromosome it all started with this little guy our dear late son caleb andrew when we learned early on that our son would be born with down syndrome and two different heart conditions we chose to give him life for however long that may be for after many days of agonizing over his conditions and the doctors constantly telling us that he would never amount to anything that his quality of life would be poor etc we finally had to quit listening to the doctors and persevere for our son persevere through their negative attitudes and know that god brought this very unexpected gift into our lives for a very specific reason from day one he brightened our lives he taught us so much each and every day about ourselves and about how strong one can be even at just a few days weeks or months old we had no idea what the future held for caleb but we knew who held his future as unexpected as caleb came in to our lives we certainly never expected him to only be with us for 414 days after losing caleb neither of us felt that we were done or complete as a family maybe just because we were missing a huge piece of our family or maybe because caleb was in our lives and a part of our journey to make us fully aware of the fact that we could handle a special needs child we felt that god trained us with a special needs child for a reason and we should not let that training go to waste so 6 months after caleb left our earthly family we came across this special guy on the internet he was listed as being available for adoption on a website that specifically posted special needs children thus began our adoption journey to bring this amazing little guy home he needed a home to love him despite his extra chromosome and we just so happened to know of one after a home study immigration application paperwork notary paperwork notary sign send repeat we were to the point where we just had to wait for taiwan courts to do their thing taiwan requires 3 court hearings each with their own time frame and so we wait and wait finally last spring we got the call that kai was officially ours come and get him come and be blessed for the last 10 months we have enjoyed every moment of having a toddler back in our home kai keeps us very busy and never ceases to make us laugh never forget the fact that every child and person on this earth has a purpose whether it is to be president or just to bring a smile and extra love to our hearts and homes every one of us has a purpose whether we have an extra chromosome the inability to focus in crowded loud situations the inability to enjoy all foods a speech delay disorder etc we can only hope that our situation has helped you or your family enjoy each day to the fullest to do a little extra something special for someone who crosses your path to see the good in everyone around you happy world down syndrome day the day where we all need to take an extra special look around and honor respect love and cherish everyone around us thank you for supporting our family during this journey joanna john posted by joanna at 7 51 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels down syndrome world down syndrome day thursday september 19 2013 2 years later well i guess we get through each day we are still breathing yet we are still missing our precious little boy it is so very odd to miss one little guy while taking care of a different one we will always miss our boy we miss him each and every day yet the memories of him i feel like they are slowly fading it is hard to remember what he smelled like what it felt like to hold him rock him feed him cuddle him what his giggle sounded like how his toes were always in his mouth the list could go on and on it is hard to not remember caleb like this always in the hospital it feels like we spent more time going to and from fairfax hospital vs being home with him but we didn t not sure why the mind always wants to take one to the dark times vs the good it was certainly a very difficult path in our lives we had to split our time between being with our child at the hospital and being with his siblings at home we had to leave a child at the hospital 45 minutes away to come home and spend a little time with his siblings before they went to bed never was and never will be an easy decision between the two yet there are so many times in caleb s final days that i wish i had stayed at the hospital by his side now that i do not have that option any more in the end our faith our family our church our friends are what get us through each and every day through it all we learned that we have much more in us then we ever imagined we had to give if it were not for caleb showing us that we can truly do it through his own fight and determination we would not have kai we would have never pursued a special needs adoption so caleb lives on through kai through all of us caleb andrew we miss you more then we can ever express we thank you for showing us how strong we can truly be when the going gets tough we hold on to the fact that we will get to see you again someday posted by joanna at 6 32 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday june 6 2013 one month ago this precious little boy was placed in our arms after waiting over a year for paperwork court hearings etc there is no way to describe what it was like to finally see him in person after receiving only photos and videos during the year of waiting we watched him grow before our eyes and to actually be able to see him in person well you can imagine we have had such a huge hole in our lives in our home and in our hearts that caleb left and to see a little boy with similar mannerisms as caleb was just too much for this momma i lost it so kai bonded with john as i tried to get myself together we had waited for that moment for so very long i could have watched john and kai together all day long john had him laughing within the first five minutes of their meeting each other kai remains a daddy s boy to this day he will take it kai is already babbling da da da may 6th 2013 will be etched in our memories for a very long time it is the day we drove 2 hours to a different area of taiwan the day we met with kai s social workers and then went to a baby store to get him a few last minute items it is the day that we walked in to his foster mother s home sat down on her couch and watched as she went into another room and brought him out to meet us it is the day that i saw a daddy go from greatly missing two little boys to missing one the day that we walked out of the foster mother s home with him in our arms and we will never let him go the day that we returned to the agency in taiwan in order to meet with his birth family his mother his father a grandmother and his 6 year old sister the day we watched him interact with his birth family with no clue that it would be the last time he would see them well for a long time anyway we certainly know and understand the great sacrifice they have made for their son to have a better life we can only promise that we will care for him and love him just like they would have posted by joanna at 7 39 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday april 22 2013 it s official as of friday april 19th 2013 yu kai became our son this has truly been a journey that caleb started a couple years ago and we finally have kai to continue it with us a long journey but we are just so thankful that it is finally official we appreciate prayers for us as we have alot of details to get through before we travel to taiwan we also appreciate prayers for kai s birth parents as they prepare to say good bye to their son they have made an incredibly difficult decision to let their son be adopted in order for him to receive the therapies specialists etc that down syndrome children need they have given our family an incredible gift by entrusting us with kai and his upbringing we know their pain we know how much they will miss their son but we hope they will always know and see through updates and photos how much he is loved by so many already if all plans continue to go smoothly kai will be in our arms on may 6th two weeks from today we will update this blog as best we can during our travels and certainly in the days and months following his homecoming look out kai your life is about to change drastically but we hope you can feel our love with you already ryan and sara cannot wait to get you home posted by joanna at 10 30 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday february 7 2013 chinese new year 2013 happy chinese new year the year of the snake a year of transition we certainly believe that bringing our little guy home will certainly be a big transition for all of us with the chinese new year just a couple days away we will now have to wait out the holiday in asia in order to hear anything about our 2nd court hearing most things will be closed all next week for their big holiday celebrations so we will just wait and wait like we have been for months thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf we still hold tight to the fact that he is in control of this process and kai will be with our family in his perfect timing we just wish it was a lot faster then it seems to be going we have currently waited 3 months since our first court hearing in taiwan which was back in november we will certainly let you know as soon as we hear anything about our next court date posted by joanna at 1 57 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday december 17 2012 holiday greetings 2012 merry christmas and blessed 2013 from our family to yours as for 2012 it has certainly kept us busy with paperwork we still miss our precious caleb each and every day that will never change we are all eager to fill a small hole of our home and hearts 2013 will prove to be a wild emotional ride we have signed dated notarized copied stapled mailed certified verified and sent or receive d more papers then we can count why because before caleb we would never have co nsidered ourselves capable of adopting or caring for a special needs child there is a little boy overseas that was p ut up for adoption by a loving family of 3 because they know they cannot care for a down syndr ome child in their country we sent in a family profile to say that we were willing to adop t this precious boy and they s aid yes with this response we began th e tedious task of adopti ng this little guy we have done all of our pa rt required for this side of the world we now wait through taiwan s le ngthy court process after 3 court hearings he will of ficially be ours we will then travel to bring him home we are currently waiting to hear word of court hearing 2 to take place we have no id ea when this will occur but in the meantime our little guy has gone from living with his birth family for 16 months to now living in a foster home that major change just occur red last week we can not imagine what he is going through or feeling at this time our hearts break for him and we cannot wait to finally get all this process behind us and be able put our arms around him and tell him that this is it we are taking you home your forever home you have a mom and dad who love you and a big brother and sister who cannot wa it to have you home as well clearly his b irth parents have made a very difficult decision we know their pain whether you have had to give up your son to heaven or to the u s in order to have a better life the pain is deep and we hope to do them proud by raising their birth son in a loving home posted by joanna at 7 12 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday september 19 2012 one year ago today straight from your mommy s heart what can a grieving mommy possibly say what i would really like to do today is shout from the rooftop can i have him back now there is really no way to talk about how much we miss you there is really no way to describe how much we miss you yet the images and sounds and events of this past week as they played out last year well they are still so vivid on the other hand what i feel is slipping away is what it felt like to hold you to rock you to sleep to give you a bath to feed you to have you burp right in our faces after your bottle to have you blow raspberries at us as we tried to feed you carrots or peas i miss this the indescribable joy that you brought to your brother and sister you changed their lives especially ryan s he finally wrote about you in his english class this year we have been trying to get him to write about you for the last year he finally wrote about you as his english teacher asked the class to write about someone they felt was special enough to be on a coin needless to say he wrote my little brother caleb should be on a coin because he changed my life your brother and sister miss you dearly as we all do to experience a loss like this is just too much for this momma s heart to handle your daddy and i don t know how to handle it ourselves let alone how to help your brother and sister handle it we can only hold on to the fact that we will see you again which leads me to always ponder what you look like now how much has heaven changed you have you grown up or are you still my precious little boy do you still smile as bright as the sun do you still love to put your toes in your mouth you were certainly happiest here when your toes were up by your head are you walking talking i hope your great grandparents and jesus are taking good care of you i hope they are holding you non stop i often pray that you are so loved in heaven that you do not miss any of us one bit i don t want you to feel that emotion at all we hold enough of that emotion for you not much has changed around home your room has stayed pretty much the same your sheet is still on your bed your dirty clothes are still in your laundry basket your clothes still hang in the closet your bouncy seat bumbo seat car seat etc take up all the space on the floor we can t just sell these things and hope the buyer has some idea what they mean so they sit i guess your little brother will be able to use some of them but at the rate the adoption is going he will not even be able to wear any of the clothes that i had bought for you to wear last winter thank you for leading us to your little brother he will fill a small portion of...