Communicating with Faith

I'm slowly learning to communicate with Faith.  We can tell each other a few things like:

• She can let me know it's time to go potty
• I can tell her to stay here 
• I can ask her if she wants a drink or food and she can tell me when she wants those things.
• I can tell her I love her.
• Can tell her when it's time for bed.
• Am able to say be careful.
• Tell her to throw away some trash and clean up when she's done.
• She loves to tell me it's bath time.
• She tells me she want's to play and can even add things like ball to that sentence if she wants to play soccer.
• I can easily communicate when I'm angry, sad, happy etc... facial expressions are so important.

There are many more things we can communicate.  There are also some frustrating times communicating for both of us.  The other day she was trying to tell me something and I had no clue and it was clear she was getting angry when I just kept signing "what?".

There are also times, like when we were in Plymouth the other night, where I was communicating verbally with Ian and Adam and realized I was leaving her out.  Those are the times when I get frustrated, I want to have these long conversations with her and I realize my lack of sign language prevents that, I need to keep it simple for now if Allison isn't around.

We still have a lot of fun, it's amazing what you can communicate without anything verbal or even signed.  The language of fun is indeed universal!

For some reason running around cracks her up.  She was running around in Plymouth on September 23 and laughing hysterically!

That's a two part sign for smile, I wanted to take her picture so I signed smile to her.  She was quick to copy me!

All the pictures of that night are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kpgingras/2010Fall#.

KG.

Allison has gotten involved as a guest blogger on Sensational Homeschooling in honor of Deaf Awareness Week!

Check it out at the link below!

http://www.sensationalhomeschooling.com/2010/09/literacy-through-hearing-loss-5-tips.html


And what would a post be without a picture?

Just Faith and I in Plymouth

Last night just Faith and I went to Plymouth.  First she sat in the stroller but then she ran free after getting some ice cream!

She still is a little awkward running around but she did great, didn't fall once!  She loved waving to everyone we passed and holding my hand and jogging around.  She did seem to always want to run into the road.  I didn't like that one very much but she did well listening to me when I told her no.  Probably because she saw so many people crossing those nifty looking green crosswalks and we did cross a couple of times with the carriage.  Faith was good staying by the waterfront.  She would run, while holding my hand and crack up.  For some reason running cracks her up.

It is very interesting just sitting with her.  She can communicate fairly well now.  She would sit on a bench and then tell me to sit down next to her so I would.  Then every bench we came across we had to sit down.  She'd sit down first then tell me to sit down.  At one point there were two benches next to each other.  Faith sat on one then told me to sit down so I sat on the other bench.  She promptly hit the bench next to her and signed "sit".  She definitely wanted me to sit with her.  I got the hint.

All in all it was a great night.  We got home and she washed up brushed and went to bed.  Alas, I was out by 9:30, I think she was still up playing with her doll in bed so she outlasted me!  KG.

Today's Gospel

Today's Gospel was Matthew 19:23-30 (click on link to read the whole thing).

The part that struck me was verse 29:  And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.

I instantly thought of Faith's mother and father.  I've often felt a bit odd about her birth parents, how could they give her up, what a horrible thing to do.  This reading, for an obviously Godly reason, made me realize that they gave her up out of love, out of sacrifice for a better life for her.  Could I give up one of my children if I knew it would be for a better life for them?  Probably not.

I know her parents probably didn't give her up for the sake of Jesus' name but they did it to offer her a better life, they knew they couldn't provide for her properly, they did it out of Love, and isn't God Love after all?  Today Faith's birth parents will be in my prayers...

KG.

More stuff about Faith

We have been taking Faith to a lot of appointments lately!  Her ultrasound on her kidneys are normal so her genetic issues regarding deafness won't be worst.  Apparently if her kidneys turned up anything then things would be bad and eventually she could lose her eyesight as well!

The Dr. thinks that Faith may have slight Autism, Allison has noticed it too.  I guess my ignorance is bliss!  She will also need a lot of physical therapy to help her to start walking better.  She still walks around like a little drunk Chinese kid!

I went out and got a pool for her and AJ earlier this summer, not sure if I blogged that yet.  They absolutely love it and with the heat we have had it's been great.  I've even been known to sit in it and relax from time to time!

We are off to my company picnic today.  They have carnival rides, free food, games and all sorts of things.  Should be interesting trying to chase her around there, we will be bringing the stroller for when we need a break!  I can't wait to take her on the big slide, you know the one with the potato sacks. AJ is very much looking forward to it!  Ian is at a Catholic Middle School leadership retreat this weekend at St. Thecla's in Billrica.  He's having fun so far, at least that's what his phone msg said last night.

Oh well, signing off for now....KG.

Saturday morning ponderings

It's only been almost ten months since adding Faith to our lives.  It's been a long strange trip where she has learned as much about us as we have learned about her.  God continues to guide this long strange trip but I find myself putting my trust in Him less and less each day and that isn't good.  I need to lean on His strength like I did in the beginning, like I did as I took my seat on that plane to China!

We have found out that she is deaf due to a genetic anomaly so she has indeed been deaf from birth.  She had a checkup recently and her Dr. said that she is indeed progressing as far as walking but not there yet.  There is also a possibility of autism.  If she were autistic she would be considered highly functional but it's something we will deal with when we know for sure.  It's tough to just watch her and analyze all this since she was unable to communicate without just yelling and hitting until she was four and Allison began to teach her sign language.

Faith is learning a LOT of words.  She still won't look at us long enough for sentences but that's slowly progressing as well.  Allison is done choir so she sits with us at Mass know and signs things to Faith when she can get her attention.  We aren't sure the exact number of words but she knows but it's over 100!  When we go on walks with her she will sign rabbit when she sees one.  She tells us to sit down all the time.  Potty was one she learned in China, she can tell us when she's taking a dump now as well so we don't have to smell for it (TMI???).  She can sign play, bath, stop, now and many others.  She understands a lot more of what we sign to her than she can sign back.  I still need to teach her "get daddy a beer".

The town has installed our signs as well around the house.  They actually put three of them up!  One at the front of the house lot and two as you approach the house from each street.  Not sure it's helping as cars still fly past here.  I should tell the Raynham P.D. that they can park in my driveway and have a ticketing field day, they could nab speeders as well as folks who don't stop at the two way stop sign at the end of the roads.

Faith still loves our trips we take to either the beach or the canal for a bike ride on Monday nights.  The beach is a bit much for me however, she's a tough one to chase around and you can't yell at her to stop when she is running off on you so I prefer canal bike rides where I can lock her in the seat behind me and know where she is.  We had to take a break from them a couple of Monday's due to the crazy hot weather we had in July, the hottest on record, hope August is at least reasonable!

Today we are off to see some relatives from Allison's dad's side of the family.  Adrionna is going to be rededicated for her relatives in Tiverton RI so we have to head down there at 9am.  Faith will get to meet some more new relatives!

Well that's enough ramblings for early morning, last day of July 2010.....KG

CAWLI Cousin's Reunion

We traveled down to Mystic CT on Saturday July 18th for our first CAWLI Cousin's reunion!

We met up with four other families who were with us in China.  It was great to see some of the other families that we traveled with and spend a day with them at Harkness Memorial Park in Waterford CT.  It was a hot one but everyone had a blast and the kids got along great!  Faith seemed to really enjoy seeing Olivia again.

The fun event of the day was wagon trains!  John Anderew (in the blue wagon) loved pulling everyone and anyone in the wagons!  Faith got a lot of free rides!

The park was awesome!  Lot's of quiet roads going through it, right on the Long Island sound (no swimming) so we could wade into the waters.  It was an awesome day!

We stayed in Mystic that night and had an interesting stay at the Ramada Mystic.  The sign we were welcomed with should have been a tip that not all was in order there.

We got there and before we went over to Mary and Jay and Olivia's house we had to check in and clean up and stuff.  Allison was trying to catch the weather and as I walked by the TV it made an interesting noise and went off.  Ian, Adam and myself were just going to go to the pool when Ian yelled "The TV is SMOKING".  It was indeed!  I unplugged it and Allison called room service.  Long story short, Ian, Adam and I went to the pool anyway and when we got back we had to switch rooms.  Then off to Mary, Jay's and Olivia's and for dinner we had:

That's Mystic Pizza from the movie.  Much like Cheers in Boston looks nothing like Cheers from TV, Mystic Pizza is very different from the movie.  Julia Roberts doesn't even work there.  

We stayed the night at hotel "almost burned down" and went to Mass at St. Patrick's church in Mystic.  A nice little church that had Central Air so that was a bonus!  After that we spent the day at a playground and then an afternoon stroll around Mystic.  We got to see the drawbridge in action so that was cool as well!

Special thanks to Jay and Mary for organizing this, we hope to make it a yearly thing now!  

All the photo's can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kpgingras/2010CAWLICousin#

Summer 2010

Well the summer of 2010 has been going GREAT!  Faith is one of us indeed, she can cause trouble when she wants to be we love her as much as we love Ian and Adam.  God has brought this joy into our lives and we couldn't have asked for it to be better!

Here is a rare shot of all three kids together...

Faith loves our beach trips as you can see above.  She loves pretty much everything that has to do with water!  Also, one of her favorite activities after our trips to Scusset is  a stop at DQ for some ice cream, Faith LOVES ice cream.  Did I stress that enough - LOVES ice cream! 

She also really enjoys all of our friends pools!

We even went out and got ourselves a little redneck pool that we can hang out in.  Faith loves it (so does AJ, Ian - not so much).  It's small, 8' diameter and only about 3' deep but it's good enough.  Faith loves to dive under water and jump around in it, she's the only one small enough to do that stuff!  I just love relaxing in it with the kids!

Been a good summer so far, lots of neat trips to Lexington and Concord and Plymouth and the Zoo.  In a couple of weeks we will head to Mary and Jay's and Olivia's in Mystic CT to have a kind of reunion.  Very much looking forward to seeing all the China folks again!

PEACE!  KG.

Fathers Day 2010

Well it's my first Father's Day with Faith, what a great addition to a Father's Day to Ian and Adam. 

I love the way Ian and Adam are with her, they make great big brothers.  Faith is already learning sign language faster than me, I knew that wouldn't be long!  She is so comfortable around us, loves mom more than me now but that's cool, she's with Allison more than me so that makes sense!

She is learning ASL now and doing it well but it's still frustrating sometimes when you just don't know the signs to communicate with her.  A lot of times she knows what we are signing but doesn't know how to sign back.  There are also times I have no clue what she wants.  We do manage but clearly patience, perseverance and prayers are going to help, I just need to remember to use them!!!

She's learning just to get things on her own as well.  She knows where the snack drawer is and likes to help herself to it a LOT!  We have to monitor that!  Same with the juice bags!

KG

Monday nights at Scusset Beach

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpgingras/ScussetMay172010#

We started our weekly treks to Scusset Beach on Monday May 17th with the Toste family.  May have been a bit early as it was indeed chilly there.  The water was painfully cold to stand in.  Faith understood not to go into the water.  Instead she played in the sand, ran in the sand and just had a generally great time.

Faith loves the beach and had a great time playing with her brothers Ian and Adam.  They dug a huge hole and jumped in it, played in it and just chilled in it. 

She has grown so much since we met her in early November and has developed a lot as well!  She knows a LOT of signs and her stability has improved also.  It's fun watching her run in the sand, she runs and cracks up while running.

There will be many more Scusset trips this summer, I promise!!

KG