Ever Wonder What it Would Be Like To Grow Up In China With Autism?

Shelby and I often wonder what Sawyer's life would be like if he was to grow up in China. Well, Shelby found this eye opening article on Autismvox. Check out this little boy's story.

All I have to say about this is Thank God Sawyer is home with us. We, as Americans, take a lot of things for granted, but we as a family are very grateful for the services that Sawyer is receiving and for the programs we have available in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Sawyer after a water fight with his brother

We Have A LID!!!!!

Let the waiting begin for Saffi to come home!!! We are LID as of June 23, 2008. Now we will be counting every day, getting anxious to get things done around the house and just going out right crazy. Have a great week and we will update you all soon.

We Are DTC as of June 4th!!

We are happy to announce that we are officially DTC as of June 4th. Let the waiting game begin.

A couple of pictures...

We went to the Philadephia Zoo (the first oo in the United States) a couple of weeks agao. The boys love looking at the animals, especially the ones they can get close to behind glass. Here is a couple of pictures I took from that day.

Stay tuned, we may have exciting news in the near future.

Wow, two updates in a row...

Close to our house is this wonderful amusement park that is specifically made for children. Many of you might know this place as Sesame Place. Today, out of their wonderful generosity, Sesame Place opened it doors to those children who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Here are some pictures from today:

Sawyer getting ready for a fun day.

Saxton Says "Hi" from Sesame Place Sawyer riding his first Carousel. He was laughing his head off once we got going. Unfortunately, they did not allow cameras on the ride. Saxton can not wait to get going.
A show with the well-known characters of Sesame Street

Both the boys loved watching the Sesame Street play and clapped along with the music.
And after a long day, they both passed out within five minutes of getting into the truck.

For those of you who do not know, Sawyer was diagnosed with the Autism Spectrum Disorder in June of 2007. Since then, we have been in continuous therapy to help Sawyer communicate with his teachers, peers and his parents. Yea see, while Sawyer is considered to be on the high functioning side of the spectrum, he is non-verbal and has trouble communicating his needs to his teachers and his parents. Furthermore, he obsesses with different items, such as lights and musical toys. It has been a long hard struggle in many different ways, but trust me when I say, we would not of had it any other way.

We first noticed that there was something going on in that little mind of our wonderful little man the first day we met Sawyer in Kunming, Yunnan, People's Republic of China. We noticed that he would be obsessed with his reflection in the mirror.

The first time I saw him do this I thought, "if I were him, I would be looking at perfection too." We also noticed that he was obsessed with spinning, lights, rocking and he would never make any type of eye contact; all signs of a Neurological Disorder. We immediately started Googling Neurological Disorders and Autism while still in China. I have seen many people disrupt their adoptions in China for these same symptoms. I have very deep emotional issues with this. My only questions is, if this child was born to you in a hospital and you found out two years later that your child has Autism, would you give him/her up? And please don't tell me it's different because we adopted. It's not!! Your child is your child. Take the responsibility for your decisions to adopt or to have a baby through natural child birth! Don't look for the easy way out. I am now off my soap box.

When we got home to Washington State, it was very difficult to get any doctor or therapist to even say they think he has Autism. We went six months in Washington without any type of diagnosis. While the rocking diminished, other obsessions came to the forefront.

It was not until we moved to Pennsylvania that Sawyer was finally diagnosed with the disorder that we have been telling doctors and therapists he had from the beginning. I have overhead some people say that when their child was diagnosed with Autism, it was the end of their world. We, on the other hand, felt a huge weight lifted off of our shoulder because we knew that now Sawyer can receive the proper therapy he deserved.

Over the past year, we have seen Sawyer overcome some of his obstacles. While he is still non-verbal, he is making great eye contact on a regular basis, he does not obsess with lights as much, but he now points at them as to ask what they are, he is beginning to use sign language and he is attempting to make make noises to get our attention. We could not be any happier.We love our boys very much. They are our world. I can not wait to share our love with their new sister Saffi.

A Picture Update...

Saxton had his palate surgery on March 24th. As you can see, he is doing just fine.

Playing teeball in the living room (I hope his mother doesn't see this picture)...

Finding some left over Easter candy...

Sawyer was very happy to see that his little brother was feeling better...

Four is about to become FIVE!!!!

I have a couple of announcements to make!! First, we have decided on the name Saffi for our first beautiful little girl.

Next, WE HAVE OUR PA!!!!!! We are so excited to be one step closer to bringing Saffi home.

And to round out our day of amazing news, we have more updated pictures of Saffi.

Doesn't she look so cute. I just wish we could go through the Internet and bring her home, now. But we now have to finish all the Dossier paperwork and get it sent in hopefully in the very near future. HOLD ON SAFFI, MOMMY, DADDY, SAWYWR AND SAXTON ARE COMING FOR YOU!!!

A Long, Long Overdue Update...

Please forgive us, we have been really busy the last month. First of all, we had a nightmare of a time with our upstairs bathroom. Long story short, we basically had it done twice. One tile job was really bad, so we had to hire another person to come in and completely tear out the tile and replace it with new tile. This all started the day after Thanksgiving and we finally were able to use the bathroom two days after Christmas. Thank God we had two bathrooms or else I would have gone nuts.

While this fiasco was going on, my parents came in from Denver over Christmas. We did not get to do as much as we wanted to do because of the bathroom situation, but we did get to go down the Philly to see the Liberty Bell and the outside of Independence Hall.
The boys had a great time at Christmas. They got every Thomas the Tank Engine known to mankind from their Bupshi, Papa and Uncle Steven, they even got the train table. This is now officially their favorite toy to play with.
We were also blessed with a phone call from Verizon, a couple days after Christmas, with a job offer. Of course I accepted and I just started last week as a Sales Consultant. It looks like it will be a very exciting change from the Telephone Engineering I did at Qwest back in Seattle. I am very excited about this opportunity.

Finally, we received an update picture of our beautiful daughter.
Here is where you all can help us out. We are stuck on trying to pick out her name. We have come up with three names that we really like, but we can not use all three. The names are: Soleil (pronounced Solay), Samara, or Saffi. Please let us know which name you all like the best by leaving a comment or sending us an email.

What a Wonderful Christmas This Will Be...

Last weekend, we went out to a tree farm somewhat not so close to our house and found our Christmas Tree. We searched near and far, high and low, through two feet of mud (at least that is what the farmer told us it was)for this special tree. Ya see, we wanted a specific type of tree called a Scotch Pine which is a little bit bushy, or in other words, it look like a giant green feather duster. When our boys finally found the tree, they hopped up in excitement.

I soon made my way over to the elusive tree and ended it's life as it had come to know, sitting in a field with other trees that would soon suffer the same fate.


We then took this fine specimen of timber home and decorated in the traditional Christmas (or is it Holiday) fashion. Yes, it has been watered.

Then yesterday, Santa's Helpers who work for our agency sent us a little present. This was totally unexpected, but our agency is very good at what they do. They told us that this present could not wait to be opened on Christmas Morning. It needed to be opened right away. We were wondering why we had to opened it so urgently, we could of waited until Christmas Eve at least. They said 'No,' you must open it now. When all was said and done....

We are very happy to announce the newest member of our family!!

Happy Birthday Sawyer!!

Yesterday we celebrated Sawyer's Third Birthday with the normal fanfare, a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, a Birthday cake and his family. His Grandma and Grandpa in Littleton, CO. sent him a Colorado Rockies T-shirt with Todd Helton's number and he got a Potato Head that can create twenty four different figures. Here are some pictures of the ole boy's B-Day:

The Cake

The Boy What Am I Suppose To Do With This?

The Mess Two Boys Can Cause Sawyer on a Sugar High
Saxton Trying to Keep Up

Happy Birthday Little Man!!!!

It's Official...

On Wednesday night, I was voted in to be a Probationary Fire Fighter for the Yardley-Makefield Fire Company. I am very excited. I will start fire school in January and should be able to participate in actual calls in about eight months. Until then, I just get to sit on the sidelines and try to learn as much as possible.

In other very exciting news, Sawyer will start his an embedded program with the Bucks County Intermediate Unit on November 29th, the day after his third birthday. This is very welcomed news for us because he will be in a program that is directed specifically towards his needs. It has been a very fun time to watch Sawyer come out of his shell since he has been in the Early Intervention program, now it will be very interesting to watch him grow in the Intermediate Unit.

And now for some new pictures...

Sawyer and Saxton, the Two Trouble Makers...

Okay, so these two have some kind of conspiracy going. Before Saxton came home, Sawyer was a little closed off from the rest of the world. It would take him forever to open up to anyone, including his Mom and Dad. Since Saxton has been home, he has been a different little boy. These two are in cahoots with taking over this house. While one is distracting us in one part of the house, the other is in the kitchen getting in to the snacks in the pantry or getting a yogurt out of the refrigerator. So here is a list of things these boys have done over the last couple of months that I found annoying at first, but are now too funny not to share.

1. After folding a load of laundry on the bed, the boys decided to pull all the clothes off the bed so they could use the bed as their personal jumping gym.

2. While potty training, Sawyer decided it would be a good time to learn how to write his name in the snow. Only problem though, there was no snow and we were in the bedroom.

3. Saxton and Sawyer love to play chase around the house. The only problem with that is the dogs love to play chase too. Ever see the movie Turner and Hooch? Picture that.

4. Two Words: Crayola Markers. Thank goodness they are washable.

5. The boys favorite thing to do in the tub now is to see who can pour more water on the other one with the cup we use to wash their hair.

6. Saxton makes anything he can into a backpack.

7. After he takes a nap, Sawyer likes to do this thing where he is pretending to sleep but he still eats or plays with his toys.

Now here are some other pictures. Enjoy!

This last picture was taken the day Saxton joined our family. Please remember that this was just two days after we got to Hangzhou, but I can hear Saxton saying, "what is wrong with this kid. It's only four in the afternoon and he is a sleep? What a woos."

Picture Update...

Per the request of our friend Nancy , here is a picture update. These are never seen pictures of our trip to China as well as recent ones. Enjoy: