Nolan's Cardiologist Appt

Today was Nolan's appt to find out about his heart murmur. He had an EKG and a an echo done. The murmur was confirmed and is something he will always have, however, it is not anything to be concerned about and no further follow up is needed. God is so good!

When the nurse was leaving the room, Nolan said, "bye bye, love you." He thinks that, "love you" always comes after "bye bye" copying what he hears at home. So cute! (It's a good thing we don't swear!)

All of Nolan's appt are done with the exception of the immunizations he will have done spread out over the next 6 months. It is such a relief to have this all behind us now.

Velcro Boy!

Helping fold towels

Waiting to be rocked before bed. Doesn't he look sleepy?!

More silliness before bed

Today has been an interesting day. Nolan was WITH me all day long, had to be close enough to touch me; not really in a frantic or whiny kind of way, but definitely more intensely than ever before. I am not sure what brought this on, maybe all the Dr's visits this week; strangers poking and prodding him. Velcro Boy!

Speaking of Doctors, we got most of his test results back this week and he's a healthy boy! We did have a bit of a scare when the TB test spot on his arm reacted, but what we now know is that he was vaccinated for TB in China and someone who has been vaccinated previously will test positive.

We have one appointment left on Monday with the Cardiologist to see about his heart murmur. We don't expect any issues here but will feel better making sure his ticker is healthy!

More Pics of our little man!

Trying to get past the baby gate! It looks like he stole Lorelei's purse and is trying to escape!
Since Nolan follows me pretty much everywhere, I have found jobs for him and once he has done it once, he considers it his job. This has worked out well for the most part except that I have asked him to put some things in the garbage and well now if we are missing something, the trash is the first place we look. Come to think of it, we are missing a pair of his shoes!
He he is painting his nails with Lorelei's pretend polish! He spends his days with his super girly girl sister Lorelei and Mommy. Maybe he will be a Mani/Pedi Spa owner when he grows up. We all know those asians do great nails!

Love Without Boundaries Auction

"Born In My Heart" Art AuctionApril 24th - April 29th (Beginning the 24th @ 9:00am PDT)

In nearly every orphanage in China, children in need of heart surgery wait to be healed. In an effort to help as many of these orphaned children as possible, Love Without Boundaries began the "Born In My Heart" art auction five years ago. This is an annual event that serves as our special tribute to the miracle of adoption, and also as a fundraiser to help us provide these essential operations to children who need emergency heart surgery.

You can help to save the life of a child by taking part from April 24-29. Every penny raised will help to heal precious children and give them the opportunity to grow and thrive, and perhaps even find a family of their very own. So please bid often and bid generously!

Auction items will begin to launch at 9am (Pacific) on Thursday, April 24th. Nearly 300 items will be added throughout the day, and the auction will close Tuesday, April 29th (again, with items closing throughout the course of the day).We have some absolutely incredible items this year, all donated by LWB's fabulous supporters!

Just a few of the items you won't want to miss are: "Jia: Portrait of Hope" by Leila Ashton: an original oil painting of one of our LWB heart babies, a life-size replica jade burial suit, two giclee prints of "Qi Pan" by Zhao Kailin, personalized digital lifebooks, the most beautiful collection of quilts imaginable (including several "100 Good Wishes" quilts), beautiful paintings (both originals and giclee prints), caligraphy, custom adoption videos, amazing photography, embroidery, gift baskets, jewlery, clothing, heritage items and so much more!

You will be able to access our auction from the Love Without Boundaries website homepage at: www.lovewithoutboundaries.com, or by clicking on the link on this blog, beginning April 24th (auction items are not available for preview).

Home 5 Weeks already!

Before I could stop him, Nolan tried out all the clean silverware!

Tonight he tried out all the kids toothbrushes....

For some reason I thought he would hate the pool. Boy was I wrong!

He did not want to get out.

He looks so cute here I couldn't resist including this one.

We see this face pretty often as he doesn't always

get what he wants when he wants it! But he is pretty irresistible!

Not sure why, but just like his brother & sisters,

he likes climbing in Lincoln's crate.

Well, I know I promised a post of our visit to Nolan's orphanage, but I just can't seem to get it finished! So instead I'm sharing more pictures and an update on Nolan!

Time sure does fly by when you are busy managing a family of 6. I absolutely cannot believe we have been home from China 5 weeks tomorrow!

Nolan continues to amaze us. God has truly blessed us with an easy transition. He has picked up many words, although it's sometime difficult to distinguish them, he does try to say EVERYTHING. He understands so much that he surprises us everyday.

He plays well with his siblings and even the issues he has with sharing seem to be diminishing. He is also very good at playing independently.

His temper tantrums are still feisty, but he gets over himself so quickly. Plus he does sit in his room without trying to spring himself from time out. He has figured out that the faster he settles down the faster time out ends.

This has been such an incredible experience thus far. We highly recommend it!

Announcements finally go out!

...joined our family through

God's Blessing of Adoption

March 3rd, 2008

Born January 31st, 2006

Hefei, Anhui China

Milton, Janis, Landon,

Summerlyn & Lorelei Wells

Things we've learned about Nolan so far...

I'd love to know what he is thinking when he does this.

He poses this way often. (His appetite is endless so it isn't mom's cooking!)

He does well playing with others... mostly.

He got over being scared of Lincoln after about a week and a half,

in fact we even went to a dog park last weekend and he loved it!

He likes to get lots of things out and like any good terrible 2-er

does not like to clean up and tries his best to get out of it!

He is secure in his manhood... princess crowns and purses are fun to play with after all.

So hard to believe it has been 3 weeks since we arrived home with Nolan. He is doing so well and makes a super 2 year old. Ha!

He had been learning many words and was willing to repeat anything we'd say but that has changed somewhat over the past few days. Thankfully we began teaching him a few basic signs as soon as we got him, and he will do those. But he has gone back to some of the Chinese words he knows. I have read that this is common and I can only imagine how much his little heart and mind are still trying to process. Now he is grunting which appears to be his form of whining. This morning however he did the sign for "eat" right at snack time which is an improvement from the caveman-like approach he has been trying lately! (Actually, he sounds more like a whiny pirate than a caveman.)

He is still throwing fits but it is usually for 1 of 2 reasons- not getting his way, or not being able to tell us what he wants, which we know must be so frustrating!

He has also joined his sisters in clearly rejecting foods if he is not in the mood to eat that particular food at the time it's offered. So see... he is a perfectly normal kids who already knows how to push Mom's buttons. But generally speaking, he eats well and objects to being cut off even after he's had more than enough. But that also could be the result of having food distributed strictly at the orphanage.

After all the kids are home from school, he wants to be held from about 4:00 on, which is a big challenge for me as I try to get homework, baths and dinner accomplished. If I set him down, he often gets stepped on in the kitchen because I am not used to having him RIGHT behind me at all times. I am not particularly patient when I'm working in the kitchen, but I am learning too!

We can tell that he is bonding and it is an amazing feeling when he seeks out Baba or Mama in a crisis, or a crowd. He is not trying to go to others as much as he was in the beginning and he does get nervous at church when are are dropping off the other kids, he seems fearful that we are going to drop him off too, and clings to us tightly. We will get to that eventually, dropping him off in his own class, but we believe it is not quite time for that and will wait a bit longer until we clearly establish our place in his life.

The potty training has all but gone out the window. He was doing pretty well in the begining but now will not communicate regarding this matter except after the fact. (He was pretty much trained when he came to us.) Oh well, one major transition at a time.

Thanks so much to all of you for the gifts and visits. We are truly blessed by our friends and family and most of all blessed and overwhelmed to be a part of Nolan's life. He's an impressive, resilient kid and a great addition to our family!

Many of you have asked about our visit to Nolan's SWI, so I will be posting pictures and recounting our visit soon, so check back here for my next post.