Chloe

Chloe!  Chloe is our little princess. She came to live with us at six weeks old. She was our very first foster/adopt placement and she stole our hearts the moment we met.   Chloe was born addicted to meth, and was not able to return home, so we adopted her in March of 2009. 

Today... She is 3 years old and is a force of nature.   She is sweet, funny, expressive, and dramatic.  A whirlwind of emotions and energy in a very small package.   Chloe has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger (as every little girl should)  but she loves to spend time snuggling with her mommy as well.  Chloe's special needs stem mostly from her prenatal exposure to drugs, but also from some attachment issues that have started to present themselves. 

One of her challenges is that she is ALWAYS in motion...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She is our little daredevil to say the least, and will try almost anything once.   Chloe has a fantastic vocabulary and is extremely smart. We just need to figure out how to help her channel the explosive energy God has blessed her with!

 

I have a couple goals for Miss Chloe Lou this year. The first is for her to go to the Head Start program in our area. She starts the second week in September.  Her team, including Nic and I, think it will be extremely beneficial for her. I would also like to see her start an extracurricular activity.   She has two main interests.  Music and Motion.   So we are thinking either Gymnastics or Music lessons of some kind. The last goal for her will be potty training.  We have made some progress in this area in the last week, but since she is blessed with such a strong will, we want to make it her idea not ours so that we don't have a battle over it.

 

Our daughter has so much going for her. We just pray for wisdom in helping her to understand where she came from, and helping her navigate the challenges that she will face. I wanted to end this post with a couple of my favorite pictures of her.

Christian

So I thought that I should introduce my Blessings one by one.

(Interesting... that song Count Your Blessings just popped into my head in my mother's voice...)

So here we go.  Christian!   He is my only "tummy" baby as he calls himself. He is our one biological child, who overcame many things to make it into this world, including a very sick momma.   He was born prematurely at 33 1/2 weeks and was a tiny 3lbs 7 oz..

Today he is almost six years old and one of the joys of my life.  He is outgoing, funny, quirky, energetic, talkative, and (in my humble opinion) brilliant!  He is also however, special needs and has his own set of special challenges.  He was recently diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. We are unclear whether it will land on Asperger's or PDD-NOS but we know it will be one or the other.
Christian's brain just works in a different way than most people's.  He is very concrete and literal. He is also very specific.  example: "Christian why don't you go watch Horton."   his reply " Mom it isn't just Horton, it is Horton Hears a Who!"  these sorts of conversations happen daily, some times multiple times a day at our home.  Once I informed him that purple was the next color of the rainbow he was looking for, and he replied by letting me know it was actually violet, not purple, but that was ok mom. 

Christian also likes to line things up which can be entertaining sometimes...  I came out of the bedroom to this lovely creation one afternoon.

The other night when I walked into the living room there was a trail of underwear, socks, and toys threading throughout the kitchen living room and dining room.  When I asked him to tell me about his lovely project, he proudly announced " It is is a trail mom, so that when the lights are out we will be able to find our way around the house!"     How thoughtful is that!

One of the things about children on the autism spectrum is that they tend to have a narrow scope of special interests.  Christian played birthday party for approximately two years straight... Not picnic, or BBQ, or Christmas, just birthday party.  Every day was a birthday!   Now however, he is into cutting and coloring his "projects"   they generally theme around his area of interests right now which are baking, animals, and space. 

We are beginning the journey of kindergarten this year and will be registering on Tuesday next week.   He is very excited about school.  I am hopeful he will get a teacher who sees all the amazing gifts he has for speech and math and creativity, not just his challenges.   I will be navigating the intricate world of the school district and IEP's and figuring out how best to get his needs met.  It should be an interesting journey. 

I am sure I will share some of our little Christian-isms with you periodically, since they are abundant! But this is who my first special blessing is... A gift from God, a miracle, who's way of thinking challenges me everyday to think outside of my box and more like him.

My Special Blessings....

My husband has always said I should start a blog.   I have been resistant for years. I am a busy momma and I don't have time to do things like sit and write.   But now after 7 years I have given in. I have decided to jump into the world of blogging. I have decided to share our stories and the adventures that we go on.

I have decided to call this blog "My Special Blessings"  because my three beautiful children are the most amazing blessings in my life. They are all special needs gifts from God. He has chosen us to parent some of his most precious angels.  We did not know this would be our path. However, we are embracing it fully, looking forward to the rewards, and preparing for the challenges that the years will bring.
This will be a way for our family and friends to share in our journey to know our blessings and to pray for our challenges.