Jazzie and Tahlia

Seven years ago...

--- we received Tahlia's referral. Here are the first pictures we ever saw of her:

  

 

 

Just like I've done with Jazzie, I have taken Tahlia's picture with her own referral picture on the anniversary of our referral day every year. Here she is today:

Last year:

2010:

2009:

 

2008:

 

2007:

 

2006:

Happy Referral Day to my sweet girl. It's hard to believe it's been seven years!

Biographies

Jazzie LOVES to read biographies. Along with mysteries, they are her favorite books to read.

A while back Matt mentioned that maybe the reason that Jazzie is so fascinated with biographies is because she is trying to figure out her own life story. I never really thought about this until this past weekend.

We were at the bookstore on Saturday night where Jazzie made a beeline for the biography section, picked out a few of them and plopped herself on a stool:

At one point she turned around and said: "Mom, aren't biographies cool? These people know everything about their life. That is so neat"...

Hmmm, I guess my husband was on to something.

Water fun

It was a warm day today; perfect for getting on bathing suits and squirting each other with the hose :-)

I love my Tallie!

Forever Family Day

Today marks the 9th year since we got to hold our Jazzie for the very first time...

May 14, 2003:

It's hard to believe that I have been lucky enough to call this girl my daughter for 9 years now.

Jazzie got to pick what she wanted for dinner. Her choice: Olive Garden.

And a snow cone for dessert!

Happy Family Day, Jazzie. We love you :-)

And just in case anyone has not seen it, here is our travel video:

Mother's Day 2012

Lucky me...

Seems like yesterday

It was exactly nine years ago that Matt and I were on a plane headed for China to get this girl:

It happened to be Mother's Day that day. Not a bad day to travel to meet your daughter for the first time :-) It's hard to believe that that little girl is now a beautiful almost ten year old!

There has been a change in Jazzie lately and I am not sure what is going on. The following was written in the profile section of her IEP:

"Jazzie has developed some behaviors like self-isolating from her peer groups such as reading instead of interacting with peers, being controlling within a group regarding preferences of activities or topics, separating herself physically from her classmates at lunch, making comments and using facial expressions which come off as rude regarding other students' hobbies/interests, and demonstrating decreased eye contact within the classroom environment. These behaviors negatively affect her ability to function well in cooperative learning activities."

Even though this did not come as a complete shock (we've seen similar behavior at home), I was surprised to learn that this is also happening at school. This is definitely something that has been a recent thing. By no means does this behavior define the entire school year, but I have to wonder what is going on in that little head of hers. It's so difficult to pin point what might possibly be adoption related or hearing impairment related. Maybe it's just her personality. Maybe it's just normal tween stuff and she is pre-hormonal. Whatever it is, something is going on and I sure wish I knew what to do to help my girl :-(

Rosie update

Rosie has been with us for almost three weeks now and she is doing great. She is sleeping through the night (which is huge!) and is working on potty training. It really is like having a baby all over again :-)

Pretty soon I will start running with her. Lily is getting older (she's almost 10) and is slowing down (2 miles is about all she can do now). I'm sure Rosie will have plenty of energy to run the 5 mile loop with me.

Lily is still a bit indifferent towards Rosie, but overall she is very patient.

Pretty girl:

The girls LOVE Rosie!

My moody daughter

Jazzie was not in the mood for pictures this evening. As is obvious :-)

I'm not looking at you...

And I'm definitely NOT smiling...

MOM, PLEASE!!!

I am SO over this!

When will this end?!?

NO MORE!

Flying Pig Half Marathon

So I ran my second half marathon today! Unlike my first half marathon, today was a hot day but I finished!

Before heading out the door:

Back of my shirt:

Waiting for the start:

Depite the hot weather, I felt really good during the race. Of course Matt was there cheering me on and handing out some much appreciated orange slices at mile 8 :-) I finished strong and when I crossed that finish line I was both excited and sad that it was over. I really need to find another race to train for, because I really want to do this again!

Just moments after finishing. I'm not looking very pretty here, but you know what they say: If you still look pretty after finishing, you didn't run hard enough.

With one of my training buddies:

At the Ohio Valley Voices Recovery Booth:

It has become a tradition for Matt to take my picture with my medal after a shower and some rest :-)

A few more days!

Just a few more days and I'll be running the half marathon. I am ready! I know I've put in the training and I am confident that I will finish and hopefully beat my personal record :-)

Matt of course will be on the side lines cheering me on. You may remember that he is my biggest cheerleader! This year, Ohio Valley Voices will have their own cheering section and we'll have noise makers, snacks and posters. If you're in the Cincinnati area and you'd like to join Matt and other O.V.V. supporters, we will be in front of Cafe Moca between miles 8 and 9.

As you know, I am running on behalf of Ohio Valley Voices, but I am running this race for me and for my girls. I hope I inspire them and make them proud :-)

Ohio Valley Voices

You have heard me talk about Ohio Valley Voices for many years. The school has been instrumental in Jazzie's successful transition into the hearing world and we are forever indebted to them. It still amazes me at times that out of all the forever families in the world, Jazzie found her way to a family who practically had a school like Ohio Valley Voices in their back yard. If that wasn't meant to be, I don't know what is.

Here is a new video about Ohio Valley Voices. The director of the school explains what the school does much better than I ever could and the parents featured in the video represent other parents like Matt and myself. The pain they describe upon finding out that their child was deaf, the hope they found when they discovered Ohio Valley Voices, the joy they felt when their child started to talk and the gratitude they hold is something we ALL feel.

Please consider making a donation to this amazing school; the program relies on donations to survive. As you know, I am running the half marathon in just 11 days to help raise money so that other children like Jazzie can have the same oportunities she has been given. Jazzie and Tahlia will participate in the kids marathon. Your donation is 100% tax deductable and can be made on-line here. Just enter Team Peffly in the comment section.

Word on the street

We were in Barnes and Noble the other day and while browsing in their clearance section, I noticed this board game. I had never heard about it before, and when I flipped over the box to see how it's played, I noticed the words "encourages vocabulary development" and I was sold. Vocabulary is the one thing that Jazzie struggles with and given the fact that she loves to play board games and the fact that this game was on clearance for five bucks, I simply had to get it.

I must say that this is a great game. The game can be played one-on-one or in teams. Players pick a category and pick a word that fits the category. You then spell out the word and move the letters from the gameboard towards your side.

For instance, Jazzie's category was:

After thinking about it for a while she came up with "ladder". She then spelled out the word, moving the letters towards her side of the table.

Then it was my turn:

I came up with "branch" and was able to move some of the letters that Jazzie had already moved, back towards my side. The game just goes on and on like this until all the letters have been moved off the board. The player who captures eight letters first wins, but Jazzie and I continue to play until all the letters have been captured. Not only is this a great game for Jazzie and her vocabulary, it's also great for Tahlia and her spelling.

Deep concentration:

It looks like this game sells on Amazon for $17, so I am feeling pretty good about my five dollar find at Barnes and Noble!