Meet Tait

 I thought since we were calling this "A Sister for Tait", you might want to know a little bit more about this amazing kid. 

 Tait is three and has a serious love for music. He prefers classic rock like Steve Miller Band, AC-DC, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. However, he enjoys Warren Haynes, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters, Pitbul and Bruno Mars. Basically, he's a sucker for a good beat. He loves to play drums while dad plays guitar and usually asks for a jam session at least once a day. In between jam sessions you can find him playing his acoustic guitar, kazoo, or harmonica.

  

 Tait also has some pretty sweet dance moves and loves to show them off in my Zumba classes. He almost always leads the warm-up and warm-down and he knows some of the routines better than I do. My students get a kick out of watching him and sometimes I get a little jealous that they watch him more than me. 

 If there is anything he loves more than music, it's tortillas. I swear he could live off them alone. He will eat anything else in the carb food group but is not a fan of meat. Occasionally we can sneak some in his pasta or into a quesadilla but he glares at you if he finds it and usually ends up feeding it to the dogs. 

  One of Tait's favorite activities is to go off-roading. He loves to go on the bumpy dusty roads and look out the window with his binoculars. He and dad spend a lot of time out in the Jeep looking for ducks, deer, and the elusive elk. It's funny because he gets cranky if we are in the car for more than forty-five minutes but he will spend all day on the back-roads without complaint.

 Tait loves to give hugs and if you're a guy, with a beard you had better be prepared to pick him up and hold him. For a long time. And he may even blow mom a kiss and try to leave with you. I suppose this could be because all the men on dad's side of the family look like hairy mountain men with big bushy beards. 

 Mr. Personality is somewhat of a celebrity at school. Not only does almost everyone know him by name, but he knows which class to go to to find his friends. He has a very good friend at school who also has Down syndrome. He is an adult and has made it known that he intends to adopt Tait when he gets his own house. I should probably be a little more concerned...

 So, there is your brief description of  the illustrious Tait (aka Tait Man, Little Man Tait, Taiter Tot, Tait Dude). Here are some pictures:

  

Can You Miss Someone You've Never Met?

 


  Last night I read a fellow adopting family's post on their progress. They had just sent more papers to their son's country for review. "One step closer", she said. And as I was lying in my bed, this line repeated over and over in my head. "One step closer..." I have known from the beginning that adoptions take a long time and that there are so very many steps before I should start getting my hopes up, so to speak, but I can't help the overwhelming feeling of missing this child I know so little about.

  I have only seen a couple of pictures and read a brief bio about her and yet I feel as if she was somehow my child and she has been taken from me. Kept far away with no contact and no definite plans of ever being with her again.

  When we first discussed the possibility of adopting her I kept saying that if it was meant to happen, it will happen. Things will work out somehow. And although I truly believed this in my heart I have had a hard time keeping positive as the daunting piles of paperwork and ridiculous amount of fees keep coming. We knew that we would have to depend greatly on fundraising and grants to meet these goals but before we can start applying for grants we must have completed several costly steps first.

  We will persist, though, because a part of my heart is halfway across the world waiting for her forever home. My only hope is that my gut feeling can stay strong enough to win those little doubts that sneak up and try to take over.

In the Beginning...

Foreword

 Cory and I have been together forever...well, actually, it has only been 7 years, but it seems like an eternity. Here is the condensed version. We have both gone back to school twice, changed professions 3 times, taught 2 teenagers to drive, watched them both graduate, moved 3 times, had a daughter that was stillborn at 28 weeks, a miscarriage, and our son who has Down syndrome had open heart surgery at 6 months. Whew!  So, now that things have started to settle down we have decided to adopt a sister for Tait.

 Let me elaborate. I have a friend who is in the process of adopting another child and while I was looking at the adoption site I came across a picture of this adorable little girl who is 2. I immediately started to cry and I just knew that we needed her as much as she needed us. Sounds corny, I know. Well here is the kicker, I decided to show her profile to Cory who is the more logical and rational one, knowing that he would just grunt and tell me we can't afford an adoption...blah, blah, blah. Surprisingly, his response was, "When can we go get her?"

 Needless to say, I did some research and talked to a few people who have experience in this area and contacted the adoption agency. So, here we are. We have started the process and everyday I think of this sweet little girl on the other side of the world and long to hold her in my arms. I can't wait for Tait to have a sister to play with and probably fight with. I love to see the twinkle in Cory's eye just like the one he has when he talks about "Tait's sister". 

 My intention is to try to document our journey for anyone who would like to follow along. So join us.

https://www.youcaring.com/the-levanger-family-498423