One Year ago....

Saturday was the one year anniversary of the day we first saw our little boy! You can click here to re-read the post from that wonderful Father's day weekend!  We will always have this memory to link to Father's Day! Happy Father's Day KJ!

We didn't know Jackson's personality, his likes or dislikes, his amazing infectious laugh, his sweet smile, his loving hug, his general love for all things new, or that he was the most wonderful little man in the world at that time. But, we did know he was our son and we fell instantly in love with his picture and the information we received about him.  It's hard now to believe it has been one year since that special day and that Jackson has only been home with us for a short time. But, now that we are all home together we can't imagine life any other way.

We love you so much Jackson and thank God everyday for bringing us together!

Some Fun Events...

Tuesday we headed downtown bright and early for Jackson's first and only appearance in Adoption Court. Big Day! He was served papers....

.....We then met with our lawyer and had to appear before the judge to officially submit our petition to adopt. We appeared before the judge as a family and were asked a few questions about our intentions. Jackson smiled and waved the whole time and the judge asked Grace a few questions to make her giggle. It was a fun, memorable day for our family. I think the best part for the kids (and Daddy) were the suckers at the end. :) According to our lawyer, the petition will take 6 months to be finalized. We should be official on November 15th! Yeah! At this time, all is complete and Jackson will be officially adopted and a US citizen.

Star Badges from the Sherriff......

Suckers from the Court Room after our appearance...

Saturday was Gracie's third dance recital. She was in three dances this year, jazz, tap and ballet,  with two outfits. She was a star, as usual. We love to watch her on stage...she's so proud and really enjoys it. This year was extra fun for her because she had many girls from school in dance with her. Here are some pics from the day.

Going Private

I've realized switching to Wordpr*ss is so much more work than I thought and I just don't have the time right now. I hope to do this someday. But in the meantime, I will be sticking with blogger and going private sometime in the next week or so.
After we go private, you will need to be invited via your email address to login to our site. If you'd like to keep checking in with us, please send me an email to jjuerg1@gmail.com and I will send you an invite. I'd love to hear from you!

Eighteen Days Home..

First and foremost, let me apologize for my lack of updates. I know I've been asked by many for an update on how Jackson is doing. He is really well and this is my reasoning for the lack of posts. We have been busy with end of the school year stuff for Gracie and getting out and about enjoying the weather and the start of the summer.

Jackson has adjusted so nicely!~ We are so incredibly lucky to have him home with us. He brings us so many smiles! Our house is so busy in a wonderful way. KJ and I joke that if Jackson is not sleeping, he is running. He is a very busy boy who likes to laugh, scream, run and explore everything!

He is now not only understanding his name but most of what we say to him. He has already started to say some words too including.... "eat" (along with the sign), "Hi" and "Bye Bye" (while waving), "Ru Ru" (when calling our dog Rudy), "hello" (with his hand up to his ear after the phone rings). He shakes his head "no no", specifically when his about to touch or do something that would require a "no no". He gives "high fives". He breaks into a little tushy shake and sways anytime he hears music, including the wind chimes outside. He signs "all done" to get out of his chair after eating and gets better everyday at expressing what he wants.

Yesterday, we taught him how to play hide-n-seek with Gracie. It's really cute. Grace will run and hide while Jackson and I wait. I then say to him "Where's Gracie".. He puts his hands out and opens his mouth wide while saying something that sounds like "where", then runs to look for her. He points and laughs so hard when he finds her. She then gives him a big hug and smile when they find each other....love it!

We had our first post-placement visit with our SW last Thursday. It was very relaxed and casual. She stayed about two hours and just observed Jackson and our interaction with him. She took notes and asked questions about his development. We have three more visits with her in the next six months as we work towards finalization. At this meeting, we gave her a note to pass along to the FosterFamily along with some pictures we've taken. We now hope to start communicating with them more and keeping them updated as Jackson grows. I also hope to now be able to check in with them, thank them a hundred times over again, and get some answers as to some of Jackson's firsts. We only got one update during our wait but, were lucky enough to get a ton of pictures from the foster family. I am really curious as to when he started walking.

We also concluded Jackson's blood tests and lab work for his first ped visit on Thursday.

As for sleeping, we are doing much better with the crying out. Although, Jackson still wakes up at least twice a night, he usually just wants a bottle and then goes back to sleep. We don't see any of the screaming or, terrors with confusion, that we saw in the first few days home. I know I've been asked why we aren't weaning him off the bottle. This is not our top priority right now and will come in time. It brings him comfort so, we are sticking with it for awhile. We will eventually help teach him to self soothe which will hopefully, get us all some sleep increments of more than three hours... :). But for now and probably for sometime, we are okay with this. We are just so happy , he is happy!

Some pics taken since we've been home..

Playing....

Loving the water and the hot day....

The kids and I went to the zoo on Friday, it was a wonderful day. We will be doing this a lot this summer....

Happy Summer!

Kindergarten Graduation

Our 'not so little' first baby graduated Kindergarten yesterday! I can't believe how fast time flies by (choking back tears as I type this).
Gracie.. we are so proud of the sweet, smart little girl you've become. Every day you make us smile and teach us more about the people we want to be, than we teach you.
You are smart, sweet, caring, stubborn but, not too stubborn and most recently the best big sister a little brother could ask for.

This past year while in Kindergarten we've noticed through maturity and school you've......
** become more inquisitive and assertive
** become more compassionate towards friends and you have more of a concern for others
** discovered a little more about who you are and who you want to be right now through school, friends, dance and gymnastics
** learned to read most words -- you like to read books to us just as much as we like to read to you
** learned to add and subtract and count coins
** started to enjoy art and creating crafts on your own more
** become more interested in god, heaven, prayer and what that all means. You like to discuss what is taught to you at school and then have us give you our thoughts on these meanings. We love these talks and love to hear your explanations and thoughts.
** hold your own with stubbornness a little more than you used to
** love the latest clothes trends (in a 6 year old world) and hair styles
** express your opinions more than you used to. You don't just go with the flow if that's not what you want. Although, this is challenging at times, you are becoming your own person and I love that.
** show your sense of humor...you use some of your daddy's sarcasm along with some of your own creative funnys


Today at your graduation ceremony your class sang some very cute songs. You then walked across the stage to receive your diploma. We love how you held your head up high and smiled the whole time. Your teacher (who is the best, you love her and talk about how great she is often) had each student note what they learned this year...your quote was "I learned how to count money". :)









After the ceremony we went out to eat with Grammy. We ran into some of your classmates who were also out with their families. The convesation turned to how all those girls had their ears pierced and their earrings were so pretty. So you made the decision, yesterday was the day you were going to be brave and get it done. Yeah!


We are so proud of you Gracie and love you so very much! First Grade, first Grade.....



With mom, dad and grammy after the program...





Our first attempt at a family photo..





The Graduate....

*** On a side note.. to protect the privacy of our kids, we will be making our blog private soon. I am working on switching to Wordpress so we can password protect all our posts. When this is up and running, I will be sending out the site address and password.

Five Days Home

It's hard to believe we have only been home with Jackson for five days. I feel like he has always been here with us.
This little boy is amazing! He seems to be adjusting well. Some quick tidbits about JJ and our first days home......

**He is happy as can be during the day. He plays with toys, loves playing with his big sister, and can't get enough of our dog.


**Each day he becomes more and more comfortable with us and we see a little more of his personality. Today we heard playful screaming and little chants..."dada, dada, lala, lala" while he plays that we have never heard before.
**Today was the first day, I noticed he had no problem going from room to room without me being close to him. He ran all over the house today.
**Today he also loved the bath! I wish I had my camera with me to catch his splashing and playing. This is a huge turnaround from the terrified screams of the first bath and the others where KJ had to get in with him and quickly lather him up. So, we could get him out as quick as possible.
I think a lot of Gracie demonstrating and showing him things are all okay is helping out huge.
** He has the most infectious belly laugh that can be brought on by tickles or tosses in the air.
**He is quick to get used to something he is unsure of. For example, the chair we have at the table for eating and the car seat. He did not like being placed in either of these at first but, now it doesn't even phase him. He even pulls on his chair at the table and requests to be put in there. He loves to eat.


**He is now best buds with our dog. The first day we brought him home he was scared of him. But, that didn't last long. He finds him very funny and loves to pet him, grab him, scream at him...anything to make him move. He then mimics him, crawling on the floor or running around. I even caught JJ throwing his snacks on the floor purposely so our dog would lick them off the floor. JJ mimicked this too...laid down flat on his stomach and licked the snacks right off the floor. Of course, I quickly put a stop to this but, not before I got a really good laugh out of it.


**Again, he loves to eat and snack...all day...all the time. At his first pediatrician appt on Monday, he was 96th percentile for height and 20th percentile for weight... Cute little peanut!
**He will try anything we put in front of him. The only thing we've found that he doesn't like so far is scrambled eggs. We are mixing a lot of staples that he is used to (rice, dried seaweed, fruit, korean snacks) in with every meal but, he has no problem trying everything.
**He knows his name Jackson and "no no", of course. He can express himself and his wants very well with some pointing and a little "eh eh".
**He is busy and FAST. He often runs as fast as can across our floors and occasionally wipes out but, nothing phases him. One time he came running as fast as he could into the kitchen, tripped and hit the floor hard. He slid belly first across the floor, whimpered a bit, came in for a quick hug and then was off again.
**He's like this with a lot of things I expect him to cry about. Today, at the ped, he flinched but, didn't full out cry when he got a shot.
**He still wakes up quite a bit at night but, the past two nights he has needed very little consoling to go back to sleep. In his pre-flight report, his FM noted he wakes up twice a night and needs a bottle to fall back asleep. So, I don't think he's ever slept through the night. We'll get there one day but, are in no hurry....little adjustments here and there. (again only 5 days home but, he feels like he's been a part of us forever)


We know Jackson's Foster family loved every inch of this little boy and took such good care of him. This and his fantastic personality have everything to do with why he smiles and laughs so much. I will be forever grateful to them and continue to pray for them and their kind hearts every night.

May 14th ---Our Forever Family Day

We arrived home on Saturday morning about an hour before we took off on Saturday morning in Korea....weird how it works out that way. After a long and very emotional day on Friday, we all woke up ready to take on the flight. Jackson slept pretty good on Friday, the day had gotten the best of him. There are so many words and mixed emotions that come with that day. I'm not quite ready to post about it about it or rethink it yet but, hope to one day. I have read many blogs and heard from many families what to expect but, it's still almost indescribable.
From the time Jackson woke up that Saturday morning until it was bedtime, he did not full out cry once. That's right, not one full cry the entire 12 hour flight. There were times he was obviously scared and clung hard to us but, he would just whimper and squeeze us to get up. He feels more comfortable when he is holding on tight and we are walking with him or swaying back forth. He ate well on the plane and smiled often to the girl sitting next us. We were so happy to see Uncle Mark, Grammy and Gracie when we got off the plane. It was the best feeling to all finally be together!

We are on to night number two at home and Jackson had a good 3 hour stretch before waking, which is so great. The first night was rough ,as expected. A little better than our first night together though. He wakes up often, looks around to take it all in. Then when you are holding him, he pulls back and checks out your face. Almost like he just wants to be sure again who you are. It's very sweet but, heartbreaking at the same time. We know this is all normal and fully what we expect. So far, the days have been wonderful. He is happy and loves playing with his big sister.
Gracie also has been so great. She is such a good big sister and wants nothing more than to see Jackson happy.



Although, very tired and jet-lagged we were all so happy to be home and couldn't help hanging out to play and take in all the wonderful things that were waiting to welcome us home. We were so surprised to pull up to our home to see these. We are so thankful for all the gifts, the toys were quickly opened and spread around the house and big thanks to Aunt Lisa and family for fully stocking our fridge and freezer. It's so nice not to have to run out for those staples we'll need over the next few days.
We have the most amazing family and friends. Thank you so much to all the grandparents for going above and beyond for us this week and thank you to our friends and family who have done so much for us. We are so lucky to have you all!
You can tell from the video below Jackson didn't have any problem sharing his excitement with some balloons and his big sister.