Mikenna is 5 !!

Our little one is 5 years old today. I took some time to reread our blogs over the last 2 1/2 years. My has she really grown physically and emotionally. She is one of our 5 joys and she really can hold her own for being so little. She knows much more than an average 5 year knows because she has 4 teenage sisters. The 4 older girls really adore Mikenna. Don't get me wrong- Mikenna can get on their nerves and really annoy them but when the day ends- they love her with all their hearts. The older girls love Christmas and her birthday. Mikenna has brought so much excitement to our family. They enjoy buying her presents and pretty much spoiling her to pieces. Mikenna has had some adjustments with Melia leaving for college this fall. Good thing for Skype, that Mikenna can talk and see Melia whenever she wants to. Mikenna has made great strides with Paul in the last 3-4 months. She no longer protests when she has to be with him. She loves to sit on his lap for story time and she will even cuddle with him on the couch. She loves his I-Phone and that makes her cozy up to him even more if she wants to play a game on it. Life is good and we couldn't be more excited about this birthday with Mikenna. On January 16th, Mikenna asked Jesus to come into her heart. What could be more exciting than that? She knows and understands that Jesus died on the cross for her sins and that He loves her and she loves him. WOW!
She still tries to rule the roost here at home and many times gets shot down but I think she will do just fine when kindergarten comes around and she can go to school and learn lots of new things.
Please continue to pray for her emotional well-being. At times, she is still so fragile and I know in my heart it comes from her abandonment. We continue to love on her and so does her Creator!
She has adapted well to going to Sunday school, speech and dance without Lori in the classroom-thanks goodness!
That sums up a lot of what Mikenna is up to-

A poem written by Madissen

APRIL 3RD

Waiting...
waiting while we watch
watch for a car
The sun slowly falling asleep
They're home!!

Grabbing a glimpse at her
grasping mom and dad
the air of China attached to them
P-U-L-L-I-N-G mom
into her new house

Observing her CLOSELY
She talks
the little baby voice

The fresh smell of dinner
as sweet as chocolate
Roladen,
Chicken, Yum
Clean up time

Playing with her, I imagine
what life would still be like without her
two years
two years she has become
the perfect puzzle piece to our family

Tired, we all go to bed
excited for the days ahead
to come
and go
A family of seven
with
love
for a
small little girl!

Written by Madissen Kruit for an English assignment March 2011

Fall 2010

Well, Mikenna is growing and growing. She finally has gained some weight. She eats non-stop but she is SOOOO active that she burns it all off. Mikenna moved into Meriah and Madissen's room on June 5th. She protested this very loudly. I planned this specifically to happen over the summer so that if we didn't get a lot of sleep, it wouldn't matter since none of us really needed to be up early. She would take naps in the bed with no problem but staying in bed at night was not happening. She would wake up around 4 times a night or more. I was exhausted from not having a solid night's sleep. Finally around July, she started to sleep more but still woke up about 2 times a night. I resorted to reading books on sleeping disorders and one book gave me some helpful hints. Most nights, Mikenna can sleep about 8 hours and then she manages to make her way into our room around 5 or 6 am. At that point, I just let her crawl into our bed. She will sleep until I get out of bed. She has a keen radar on me and the moment I am gone, she can sense it. Mikenna is gaining trust with people at church. She no longer goes to nursery and she is slowly adjusting to Sunday school. She really likes Mr. Allen and talks about him all week but yet when Sunday comes around she is usually in tears saying she doesn't want to stay alone in S.S. We are working on me leaving part way thru the service. Mikenna loves the daycare kids. Especially the older kids. She misses all her friends from last year that didn't come back because most of them attend all day kindergarten so their parents don't need me any longer. We have a few play dates with those girls and Mikenna just loved it. Mikenna continues to show us how smart she is. On Easter, she told us that Easter was the day that Jesus rose from the dead after he was killed on the cross for us. WOW! A three year old gets it! She can now spell her name and she can count about to 40. She still loves being outside and playing with the daycare kids or our neighbor, Caroline. Mikenna has slept over night at my parents house twice (with a few sisters) but has done well without mom. I am still the only one to put her to sleep at night. Paul and Mikenna still need prayer. She will go with Paul, but most of the time will put up a fuss. Her mind tells her that it'll be ok but her heart has not come to that realization. We are still working on this and her 'whining'. As an adopted child, she will always have some issues about being adopted but we are praying for her to fully attach to all family members and friends so that she will be able to have lasting relationships with others as she grows up. God is in control and I need to rely on Him for His time to be perfect. We were able to get together again this summer with some of our 'China families' in Ohio. One of the families has added another child from China. We got to meet Noah and he is very sweet. Mikenna enjoyed being with Emmett, Mariah and Noah. We have plans on going out to Va. after Christmas to visit our 'China families' again. We are so excited! God is good and faithful to us. God bless- Lori

An adoption poem !

This poem was written by our Meriah this year in her language arts class:

ADOPTING FROM CHINA

EW! The smell of 'snack lane' in the streets of China.
The smell is like dirty socks your brother wears.
Scorpion, snake, kidneys, all different in taste and smell.
You take a bite of something you thought was chicken.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH!
All the food is the hard work from the people.
Finally the day comes...
Everyone crying,
Holding someone they've been waiting years for.
The tears trickling down their faces.
DRIP, DRIP, DRIP!
'WA, WA, WA'
Little Mikenna's cry
Seeing them cry...
Your crying even more!
Getting the adoption finalized.
FEW! What took so long?
Even the final signatures of my mom and dad say, 'FEW!'
TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK,
My sisters and I waiting anxiously!
TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK.
The tires rolling on the driveway...
It sounds like I have just won something valuable.
Finally, we get to meet our little sister!
We all wake up the second we hear her little cries.
Her cries are as loud as 100 elephants going up and down our stairs!
But... her cries are the hard work that pays off!
Maybe, just maybe we will experience the world of adoption again!

written by Meriah Kruit (2010)

April 3, 2010 - We've been home a year!

We can hardly believe a year has passed since we landed on US soil with Mikenna. It has been quite a journey over these last 12 months. Mikenna has made great strides but still has some big steps to conquer. She loves McDonald's, singing and being sung to, playing with bubbles, reading books, going to nursery at church, and eating just about anything that is put in front of her. She continues to amaze us at how smart she is. I took her to be tested thru the school district, and she tested within normal limits for a child that was born here in the US. So, she will not need any early intervention for speech or hearing. She loves being with her big sisters and demanding their attention. (Most of the time they give it to her.) She keeps us laughing at her little comments that clearly shows she has 4 older sisters and her mannerisms are really cute. The 4 older girls give her so much love and attention. We are still the 'novelty' at most places like restaurants or soccer games for 2 reasons: we have 5 beautiful girls and the youngest is Chinese. We get a lot of people either starring at us or actually asking if Mikenna is ours. (One person even asked me if Mikenna was Chinese-UM, I didn't quite know how to answer her with out making her feel stupid!) Mikenna, Paul and I went to counseling to help her bond more with Paul. We went for about 4 months and it helped a lot. She now will let Paul hold her, get things for her and even cuddle with him but she still does not allow him to put her to sleep or she does not like being left with him alone. We are still working on the trust factor with men in her life. We are also working on getting her to sleep in her own room with Meriah and Madissen. She sleeps in that bed for nap but not at night time. It has been a long year with a little person sleeping right next to us. We know it wont last forever but we both thought she would of been in her room by now. Mikenna still goes to a lot of soccer games and she loves it because she is outside- her favorite place! Mikenna has made a lot of friends with either the daycare kids or 2 other kids that have been adopted, one from Nanning, China (where Mikenna came from) and Haiti. Adoption is a wonderful gift and we have been so blessed by having Mikenna in our lives. At times, it has been stressful and then other times she makes it all worth while. Adoption has changed our lives forever- what a gift it has been to our family. Our girls have begged us to adopt again- we have responded that our family is complete. I have no doubt that one of our girls or maybe all of them, will adopt a child once they are married. I could go on and on about how adoption was a wonderful choice for our family but I'll spare you all of that. Please keep praying for Mikenna and her trust in Paul and other men and that she will grow into a beautiful young lady that loves the Lord. What more could Paul and I want for her life? This has been our first year with Mikenna and what a wonderful journey! Praise God!

March 24th, 2010 - Gotcha Day

This is Mikenna's Gotcha Day. One year ago, Paul and I laid eyes on our 5th daughter for the first time. Wow! Time has flown bye! We thought it would be fun to celebrate Mikenna's Gotcha Day with friends and family. We had an open house for her and 45 friends and family showed up to help celebrate Mikenna's special day. For those of you that are wondering what a Gotcha Day is and why we would celebrate it, let me explain. For kids that are adopted(either domestically or internationally), often times the families do not receive their children on the day they were born. So, Gotcha Day is the day that the child is joined with their forever family. Mikenna was a bit overwhelmed at first by all the people and I'm not sure she understood why everyone was here but she warmed up after awhile and had fun with all the kids that came. I had our dining room table covered with her clothes and shoes that she came to us wearing that first day, of course the green soccer ball that she carried throughout China, all the things we bought in China, her pictures while in China and since being home, and a lot of books about China or adoption. We also had all our pictures scrolling on the T.V. for people to see our pictures of the beautiful country where Mikenna was born. It was quite an evening of sharing our journey with friends and family. Happy Gotcha Day to all our adoptive family that traveled with us to China!

Happy New Year

It is the Chinese New Year. It is the year of the tiger. Mikenna, Brienna, Meriah, Madissen, Mom, Mrs. Luedtke, Jordan, Shelby and Lexi all went to Chinatown in Chicago for lunch and the New Year's parade. The lunch was wonderful and the parade was VERY crowded. At times it was hard to see some of the parade because people kept moving and getting in the way. Mikenna liked seeing the dragons. In the mass of all the people, we actually ran into Matt(my nephew) and his wife and then Mrs. LaGrassa, a teacher from the middle school in St. Charles.
Paul and Melia could not be with us this year because they are on their way to FL. to look at a college in Palm Beach (rough huh?)
We are ending the evening watching Mulan 2. Mikenna loves watching Mulan.
Well, this was a fun day for all of us and we look forward to many more celebrations!