Baha, at last!

We finally had Jackson's fitting for his Baha!  He has been doing so well with it.  We were approved for 2 but for some reason our audiologist said that she will not order the other one for another year.  We have Cochlear looking into this for us.  But for now, we are thankful that Jackson has access to new sounds.  His Baha is programmed specifically for his hearing.  We are prayerful that this will be life-changing for him!

just because...

I'm so adorable and loveable!

Catching up with the Noodle Master and more!

We have a lot of catching up to do.

Jackson has transitioned beautifully into our family!

He is excelling at school and is loved by all.

We are still waiting on his bilateral Bahas to arrive which should be any day now.

Below are pictures from our very American attempt at celebrating the Autumn Moon Festival.

For some reason I was thinking it was a week later that what it was, so it was last minute planning.

Thankfully, Jackson is easy to please with food.

We enjoyed a very big pot of noodle soup!  Watching Jackson eat it reminded us of our time in Guangzhou whe we ate at the little deli and noodle shop outside of the White Swan Hotel.

The Noodle Master at work

Now we're talkin'!

This wasn't quite what my mom had planned for this year's festival.  Let's see if I like it...

ummmmm.....not so much!





operation i.d.

We decided that since Jackson is unable to give any identifying information about himself that we would look into purchasing an i.d. bracelet for him. We searched the internet high and low, emailed bloggy friends who are friends of Kurt's cousin in Michigan (Hi Rachel!) and then received emailed pictures from our friends in Jacksonville, whose daughter wears an id bracelet due to allergies. 

We finally decided on a bracelet for our little man.  And now this mama feels much better as he rides the big yellow bus away from my school each morning 10 minutes down the road!  He wears it at all times and does very well with it on.  He now likes to hear it jingle on the car window, his car seat arm rest, across the dining room table, down our footboard to our king size bed...you get the picture!

The information was simple:  on the front with the Medic Alert we have his first name and last name and then the words Hearing Impaired with the word "over" on the next line.  It flips over easily and has his birthdate, No Known Allergies (since at this time we don't know of any but since he is adopted, there could be something), our cell phone numbers and our first names.  It's stainless steel and wasn't too costly.  But the best part...

We feel much better knowing that someone could contact us if our little man was separated from any of us or from someone at school.

7 months

7 months ago on February 2nd we finalized adoption papers in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, Peoples Rebublic of China.  Fast forward to September 2nd, we had our court hearing to "readopt" or "refinalize" what was done in China, here in America.  Although Jackson became a Swartzlander in every sense of the word 7 months ago, we decided to go through this very simple process here in the US so that we would be able to get Jackson an American birth certificate (which I believe is a Certificate of Foreign Birth) and then we will be able to apply for an American Passport!

Our attorney was wonderful.  He and his wife have 2 adopted girls from China.  He provides his services free of charge to families that have adopted from China to refinalize everything.  We only had to pay the court fees!  What a blessing for our family!  In all of the years that he has been doing this, Jackson was THE VERY FIRST BOY that he has represented!

Jackson and his "out of the blue" goofy grin! with our attorney, Mr. Pappas

Our family with Judge Piggotte

Outside the courthouse

Jackson and Kurt

a little someone turned 3

Sunday was Jackson's 3rd birthday!

He had a blast!

More details on our family blog, but here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!

Bilateral Bahas

On Friday, we received a phone call from our insurance company that they had APPROVED Jackson for the BILATERAL Bahas!!!!!!  We just couldn't believe it!  As things usually go, we will be thrilled on the day that we are walking out of the audiologist office with them on!  We will probably be RUNNING hoping that our insurance company isn't waiting for us to tell us they changed their minds!

I have spent this past week calling back and forth between Shands and FL Health Care Plans trying to get FHC to send the paperwork to the correct fax.  It finally arrived today at Shands but UNFORTUNATELY the audiologist is on vacation until Sept. 8th and nothing can happen until she comes back.

But...on the bright side, our little man is getting what he needs and soon!