Summer Is Here

Hello to everyone,

We are probably the absolute worst people at updating a blog, but I do however let it cross my mind and then with the sheer force of will power, I turn down the hall to the ol' trusty electronic typewriter and begin the updates for you all to read.

I must admit I don't remember when my last confession was father so I will just update you on what I can remember. Hope that is all well with you.

Baelin has completed her first school year of Pre-School and Therapy. She has come along way in the past 9 months. We had some struggle finding her a full time place to go but we have her in one now and she receives extra therapies to help her get caught up. She gets to go to Speech 3 days a week, Occupational Therapy 2 times a week, and Physical Therapy 2-3 times a week. We finally have a diagnosis for her lack of understandable speech. She has Apraxia. A condition that disables the neurons from contacting the muscles in the mouth to form the word. She thinks she is saying it but cant get it to come out clear. It is something that she will grow out of to an extent over the years and may even regain full speech. She is smart as a whip and can do anything you need her too. Even spell with letter on a table but she can not get that to come out of her mouth. She still has a few words that are clear as day, and with each passing week we start to hear more. So that is encouraging.
Her occupational therapy is just to get her caught up with age appropriate actions, which she is very close to being there The Physical Therapy is helping to straighten out her walk. She has a wide range of flexibility in her hips and can turn her leg 180 degrees from instep to out step. She tends to walk with one foot turned in and one out, so they made braces for her to help her not walk on her toes and keep her feet straight. This has been the fastest improvement we've seen.
So that is the update on the little one.

The summer has arrived and it is time for the Arkansas Sauna to be turned on and the fun to begin. Baelin will still go to school year round but not as much. She will only go a couple times a week instead of all week. The Girls are past ready for a break and I look forward to many days of sleeping in late!! It is a rare thing to not have to keep up in the morning unless school in no longer in session.

The Lady of the house is doing well, up for a big promotion. I too am on a promotional list but mine will be a lot slower coming around than hers will be. Either way, God is Great and we thank him for the many blessings he has given our family and our friends.

The little Ai Yuan that I was looking to adopt from Bethel Group in China had a family to get to her first but I enjoyed all the photos and pictures she sent me. Kinda broke my heart a little but excited for her to be going home. Maybe the Lord will place another child in our path one day. We will see.

So that is all in nutshell. Love reading all your blogs and keeping up with the kids as they grow. Hope to see you all one day.

Til Next time...BE Incredible.

Catching Up

Hello everyone. I know it has been a while but we just are not good at constant post. Too busy I guess. We do keep up with all your blogs just don't update ours near enough. So while I have a few moments to spare I thought I would write to you all and tell you what has been going on in the world of the Incredibles.

Baelin is growing so much and is as beautiful as ever! Her speech however has not progressed any. We have taken her and gotten her hearing and eyes and everything we could evaluated and they have come to the conclusion that due to her special needs status in China and the anti-seizure medication that they had her on has enabled her to be a 1 1/2 delayed in speech and some occupational milestones. We have fought like crazy to get her into a school since March and have finally succeeded in getting her accepted somewhere. I thought the Chinese government was delayed and off their rockers but ours has put any dilemmas we had over there to shame. Apparently most of the schools that offer special needs tutoring or education around this area is for people who are on welfare, medicaid or both. We make too much money to enable her to be enrolled in the few full time programs around us. Our tax dollars pay for ever child in the schools but ours was refused for the simple fact that we did not qualify for medicaid. CRAZY!! They don't even offer to let us pay out right. So the school we wanted her in wont take her and the the other place that will can only see her 30 minutes twice a week. We finally found a school that would take her but want us to apply for TEFRA which has proven to be a nightmare. This is a sub-set of medicaid for people who make to much but has a medical condition that qualifies. So we are in the several month process of that now. Think the school is still going to let her in regardless but if we get denied we are unsure if they will kick her out. So if anyone has any suggestions here we would love to hear them.

The Mrs. and I are doing well. continuing to knock a day at a time out of our careers until we can retire together on day.Haven't tried investing in the Lottery yet but we now have one here in Arkansas. Hear the risk are high but the return could be nice. LOL We have made several new friends from China. There is a research facility for the Government close to our town and it employees a lot of people from China who are here on Visas and then hopefully get to stay so while they are here we get to meet many of them and have a Chinese group at our church now that meet for Bible study while we have regular church services. Most all of them have a daughter and are here for that reason. It is nice to be able to connect with them and have something in common with them. Most of their daughters are friends with all of ours and we enjoy having them over for cookouts and fellowship. They want to teach our kids and us Chinese but think I may be too set in my ways to learn a new language. May just let the kids.

Seems like ages ago since we crossed the big pond to bring Baelin home and since we have seen some of you. Hope to reunite one day and let our daughters all meet again. Baxley, our oldest is getting into that test your boundaries age so that has been fun to begin. We know she will be fine once she grows into being a woman but the journey there may age me twice as fast. Blaise has already had three or four small countries contact her to rule over them one day I think. If they have not she may destroy them and take them all over before she is 7. Ive never seen so much Drama and Genius wrapped into one small cute package as that one. I'm praying for the intelligence to stay ahead of her so that she don't out smart me one day. lol

Well it was good to catch up with you all and I enjoy keeping up with all your blogs as well. Talk to you all one day. Take care and God Bless