The Flores Family
The first time I saw Jolene was when I went to AdoptUsKids.org. When I saw her face I knew I LOVED her. I got my husband and boys to come see and they thought she was adorable. We made contact with her worker and it seemed like a lifetime before we finally got the call that we had been the family chosen to adopt Jolene. It took almost 3 years from the first contact to getting her home with us.
When I saw her picture I thought she had Down syndrome, but after reading about her and seeing she had Aperts I began to search the internet for information. We made plans to go see Jolene as she lived in AZ and we were in Missouri. We made our flight plans and hotel plans to go make our 1st visit in August 2005. We got to our hotel and we meet up with her CASA worker Paul who took us over to Momma Mary’s house to visit with Jolene.
We made plans to come back to visit and play with Jolene while Mary went out for a little bit. She loved to pick up blocks and stack them. She and Mike had a blast. We took her out to breakfast, and she had many stares. We didn't care as she was so happy. We were there about 5 days but we didn't make a decision to adopt her until we knew we had all her resources available where we lived. We were sure that there were no children in Kansas City who had Aperts, but then we found that the Arizona doctors had only seen Jolene. She was the only case they had. SURPRISE!
I called Children’s Mercy and they told me that they had several children with Aperts. I was so relieved. I called our school to see if all her needs could be met, and yes they could. They could provide her with physical, occupational, and speech therapy while she attends school. I called the hospital to see about having physical and occupational therapy done for Jolene over the summer. What was so great was that the therapist at the hospital worked not only there, but also at the school she would attend. Jolene not only has Aperts but she has Shaken Baby Syndrome (she had a stroke that has caused problems with walking). She is drawn up on the right side but she does use her right arm and hand more. Jolene also has a shunt. After the research I felt we had all we needed and contacted some friends and family and talked about our decision. We knew that this little girl would need a lot of support.
What a blessing for us. We drove out to get Jolene the end of Nov. 2005 and on the 2nd of December we got her home and put her in her new bed. God was so good to us. We stayed in 3 hotels and she slept through the night without a problem. When we got her home she went right to sleep. We had taken our 13 year old son with us to go get her and had our pickup full, and the U-Haul full as well. Thank goodness for the extended cab. The two of them played and Stephen fed her food. She played with his feet and hair, giggled and laughed. She never cried for being homesick. God was with us all the way. Jolene has never shown any kind of separation anxiety at all since we took her to bring her home.
Momma Mary had Jolene since she was 3 1/2 months old and had seen some of the worst surgeries for Jolene. We feel that Jolene’s personality came from Mary. Because of Momma Mary, Jolene has turned out to be the most beautiful little girl, with such happiness, and personality and strength. We all love MOMMA MARY. She has become a second family to us; we always call and send pictures to each other.
Jolene is now 4 yrs old. She attends Preschool and the children are wonderful to her. I made a visit to them in April 2005 as Jolene was going to try preschool 3 days a week , 1/2 days. I made a photo scrap book of Jolene and all the things she could do. I sit with two classes on the floor and explained to them about Aperts as best as I could. Jolene had a lot of problems walking and one little girl told me she would help her and hold her hand to walk. That Monday I took Jolene to school, it was awesome. She sat down in a chair and when she got up, two girls held her hands to walk and another girl put her hands around Jolene’s waist to help her walk. Behind her was a line of children walking along with them. I could have cried it touched me so.
Jolene has been in two plays at school - one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. She has her own Para and her Para goes with her on stage and sits on the steps while Jolene stands and sings. It tickles me so to see her happy. She saw Daddy taking pictures and of course she started yelling "Daddy, daddy."
Jolene is walking all the time without holding on to anything. In the beginning, it was hard for her. When we got Jolene she had a wheelchair. We have never used her wheelchair and only used a small stroller to take her places as she is heavy to carry. Now we walk, she is slow but she walks. She has to have special shoes ordered. Her big toes have been separated which was done in hopes to help her walk and we believe it did. Her middle fingers were just recently separated. Her left hand looks very good but her right one does not as it draws up some. Jolene doesn't talk well, she does a lot of babbling but she can say: Momma, Daddy, Bubby, Bobby, Kitty, more, blue, tries to say yellow, green, and she does try to say words.
She has had three seizures since she came here. They are the staring kind. We have adjusted her meds for that (which, for now, is working). She had grown and needed it changed to a bigger dose just of late.
We took her to church for the first time a week ago, as we were afraid to take her somewhere she had not been and worried she would be loud, but we decided to take her to the preschool class. Silly us, she did great. We were never contacted to come get her. They said she did great and there were no problems. Talk about proud. Now we know we can go and not have to worry about her doing something different. She can adjust to anything.
She loves to go shopping. This girl is a girl for sure. Jolene is our only girl. We have three sons, 24, 19 and 14. I have two sisters and they all have boys. This is the first granddaughter on my side. My Mom is 80 and she adores Jolene.
Sometimes I wish we could have gotten Jolene when she was that little 1 year old I saw in AdoptUsKids but I am so thankful that we finally did get her. It has turned out to be a wonderful journey with her. She keeps us busy, she keeps us laughing. She shows so much love to us and to others. Jolene blows kisses a lot. When you say “I LOVE YOU,” she takes her hand to her mouth and blows a kiss to you with her tongue sticking out (we are working on that). I hope to hear those words from her one day but if it doesn't happen, I will take those “blow kisses” any day as this is how she tells me she loves me.