Monday, July 30, 2007

Life With Lily...

...has been amazing. She shows so much improvement everyday. She is constantly doing something new...making new faces, new sounds, discovering new things. She is so smart (a genius of course!) and learns very quickly. When we first got her in China, I tried putting her on her stomach to see if she would crawl, or at least try to. She wanted nothing to do with it and was sure to let us know! Gradually she has been letting us put her down on her stomach...most of the time just to roll right on over to her back...until yesterday. I put her down with her beloved cheerios just out of reach. It wasn't quite a crawl...but she dragged herself over to them...all by herself...my big girl! Before too long I will be chasing her around this house longing for the days when she wasn't so mobile. And when we first got her, she wanted nothing to do with her daddy, which broke our hearts. Now when she sees him, she cries and reaches out for him to pick her up, and now our hearts are melting. When I get her up in the morning, she cries until I get her out of her crib. Once I pick her up, she quickly glances around the room like she's making sure everything is still there. Everything is still here for you baby...and mommy and daddy will always be...

Mommy and Lily with Lily's new friend Deborah.

Lily with her Lao Lao.

Lily loves being upside down!


Saturday night, July 28th, we went to the park for free movie night with some friends. We left before the movie finished (they were showing the new version of Charlotte's Web) because somebody was having too much fun to fall asleep!



Everyone with their picnics all set up and the big blow up movie screen.




We endorse Cheerios brand cereal! (Do we get any royalties for this??)





Having fun "flying" with daddy.



Lily had a blast playing "peek-a-boo" with the hood of her sweater.



Our good friends...Sean and Michele with their girls Rachel (on the left) and Tess.

Tired mommy and daddy with a seemingly not-so-tired Lily. But after we got home, we put her right to bed. This was the first night she went into her crib without crying. Yeah Lily!




Sunday afternoon, July 29th. "I think I can, I think I can..."


I'm almost there...I can do it!


So close!!


Got it!! (Of course right after she reached in, she spilled them all over the floor, but mommy was so excited she didn't care!)



Yes, I'm cool.


I love daddy's shades.


Sunday night after the torturous bath. She hates bath time, but I think she likes the snuggling with mommy part afterwards. And this was the second night in a row she went to bed without crying!

Monday morning at breakfast. She is one happy girl at mealtime!

The newest face she makes that just cracks us up.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

A-Ok!

Lily got the all clear from her doctor today...yeah!! Her TB test came back negative and he said the radiologist didn't see anything irregular on her x-ray. This mommy is certainly feeling much better today! Lily did as well as can be expected at the doctor's office. She doesn't care for him too much! She had her vaccinations...2 shots in each leg. Ouch! But she got her cheerios afterwards and felt much better. I think it hurt Robert and I more than it did her! She's also put on about 5 ozs since we got her, so that makes us very happy too.

Right now Robert is at the dentist's office...probably getting a root canal. Yikes. His tooth has been bothering him since shortly before we left for China. We decided to wait until we got back before taking care of it. Hopefully, if he did have to have one (which at this point I'm assuming he did since he has been gone for 2 hours now), it will go well and he won't be in a lot of pain.

Well, enough of my ramblings...I know you are really here for the pictures! Here are some that we have taken since we've been home.


Mommy, Lily and Great Aunt Paula

Lily with her Great Aunt Valerie...and none too happy about it!


She loves to swing upside down!



Lily with a very happy daddy


4 generations...my mom, me, Lily and my grandma


No...she didn't stick her finger in a light socket! This was how she looked when she woke up from her nap yesterday.


Lily with a very happy mommy (after we combed her hair!).


Lily and Shayna. They still aren't too sure about each other, but Lily is becoming much more interested in Shayna thasn Shayna is in Lily!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Dr. Visit

Lily had her first doctor appointment with her new pediatrition yesterday. It went really well. We took him the x-rays they had taken in China. He said he wasn't convinced it was pneumonia but he was going to send them to the radiologist to be sure. He took her off of the medication she had been given in China and prescribed albuterol to clear up her congestion. He also gave us a new formula with iron as her levels are low. He said she seems to be perfectly healthy...a little underweight but she will catch up in no time! They also gave her a TB test just to be safe. (I'm no expert, but I know there will be a reaction where the test was given if she is positive, and so far, nothing.) She'll go back to the doctor tomorrow to have it read and to go over what the radiologist said about the x-rays. I pray that nothing out of the ordinary shows up and that she will be given a clean bill of health!

She seems to be adjusting well to her new home. She is more and more interested in Shayna and Max. She watches them continuously when they are in the room and tries to pet them...if they let her! She has been reaching out for her daddy more and more. He did everything for her this morning...fed her, changed her diaper and got her dressed. I think she's starting to get used to him! After he got out of the shower this morning, she cried when she saw him and reached for him. We were both so excited! Robert said, "She likes me! She really likes me!". So funny.

I will have more pictures soon. I don't know how to compress them, so once Robert gets that done for me (thank you honey!) I'll put them up.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Gotcha Day Video

Here is the video of the day we met Lily...the happiest day ever!


More Pictures!

She's a happy girl!


So cute all dressed up.





Our little Dodger girl!



Nai Nai, Lily and mommy


At the clinic for her final nebulization treatment


Mommy is smiling for the picture, but only on the outside!



Poor baby. She slept through the whole thing...thankfully.



Cheerios make everything better.



Mommy, Lily (getting ready to scream!) and Dr. Nong...our hero!


Having fun with mommy at our last dinner in China.


We're going home tomorrow...woohoo!!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

There's No Place Like Home

If only it were as easy as clicking my heals and repeating that phrase! All in all, our trip home was relatively uneventful. We made all of our flights and our luggage all made it home! The only thing newsworthy about the trip was about 2 hours into the 12 hour flight. I gave Lily her bottle...she must have been starving because she gulped that thing down like she had never eaten before! The next thing I knew it was all coming back up, all over me. Then I heard the loudest crying I'd ever heard come out of her. I think it scared her more than anything. She was so upset and I was so blessed to be able to comfort her...even with baby throw up all over me! I didn't even care. All that mattered was making my daughter feel better. I had packed a few extra outfits for her, but nothing for me. Needless to say, mommy didn't smell too good by the time we got to San Francisco! The best part of the trip was going through immigration in San Francisco and bringing our newest American Citizen across the official border...our little American girl. She did so well on the trip home. She just amazes me...she is so adaptable and easy going. We finally got to the house around 4:00 and were greeted by a very happy Shayna! By about 6:30 Lily had had enough so we put her down for the night. I thought for sure she'd wake up during the night, but there was not a peep. I kept checking on her, paranoid mommy that I am, and she was just lying there sound asleep. She didn't wake up until 8:00 this morning. It was a long day!

As soon as we get the rest of the pictures uploaded and re-sized, I'll post them...hopefully by this evening or tomorrow. For now we are soooo glad to be home!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Coming Home

As I type this we are packing things up and getting ready to come home...beautiful words to a mommy in a foreign country with a sick daughter! It's only 4:30 in the morning here. We have an 8:30am flight to Hong Kong, then our 12 1/2 hour flight to San Francisco and our last leg to Los Angeles. I've never been more excited to come home. Thank you all so much for your prayers. I know they are working. Lily is getting better every day. I have to wake her up now to get her ready to go. We'll see you when we get home!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Feeling Better

Last night was a much better night for Lily...and for us! When we first put her down (very late as we had a treatment at 10:00pm) she coughed quite a bit. Finally she fell asleep. I watched her for a while, making sure I could see her little chest moving up and down. Next thing I knew it was morning! I got up to get ready for the day before waking her. When I came out of the bathroom, daddy had her on his lap feeding her her morning bottle. What an amazing feeling. It was so precious to see him there with her...his daughter. As soon as she saw me she started fussing, but not nearly as badly as she usually does. They are doing so much better. I finished feeding her as Robert got ready. The 2 of them went down to breakfast together while I finished preparing for the day. It's so quiet in this room when she isn't here. When I went down daddy was feeding her breakfast and she didn't cry to come to me! That was quite a milestone for her. After breakfast we went back to the clinic for her nebulization treatment. We were prepared for a 15 minute screaming session. We got about 30 seconds of mild protest and then she fell asleep! At this very moment, she is lying in her crib and daddy is lying on the bed next to her. We thought she'd be exhausted and want to take a nap, but it's not to be. She is giggling and making her little baby sounds, trying with all her might to sit up by herself. Our baby is going to be ok...praise God. The next thing we have to do is go to the Consulate for our oath at 3:00, and then the last nebulization and final doctor visit at 5:30. Then we come back to the room to pack our things and get ready to head home. I've never looked forward to going home so much. Please continue to pray for her health, and for our travels tomorrow. I'll post again once more before we leave, and hopefully I'll have a few more pictures. We didn't get any yesterday with all that was going on, but we will be sure to get a picture of Dr. Nong...our hero!

Praises and Prayer Requests

Today has been a very long day. We spent another pretty much sleepless night with Lily last night. She was up coughing all night long and it started sounding worse. This morning she was wheezing so after breakfast we decided we'd better have a doctor check her out. Our guide gave us the address of a clinic nearby at the Garden Hotel. We got there and waited not too long before seeing the doctor on duty. He ordered some blood tests and a chest X-Ray. Before he sent us for the tests he was telling us how "these babies" (referring to babies in orphanages) always have problems and that Lily didn't look too good. He then told us to wait about an hour and a half for the test results. We hung around the waiting room. Today was my true breaking-in as a mother...I've never been so worried in all of my life. Lily was playing as usual and Robert and I were just kind of staring off into nowhere...wondering, praying. When the doctor finally came back he showed us her X-Ray. He showed us there was something on her lung. He ruled out bronchitis, but said it could be pneumonia or mono. If it was mono she would have to be hospitalized and we would not be able to leave on Friday. My heart sank. The blood test results showed some things were off (I can't remember specifically right now) but it could be malnutrition (not surprising) or something worse. He recommended a nebulizer treatment and that we wait to see the Pediatric Specialist who was coming in at 5:00 (by now it was now 3:30). Everything in me wanted to get the heck out of there and just get my baby home. Being sick in a foreign country is not exactly ideal! Robert and I decided we would meet with him...better safe than sorry. She took her treatment, screaming the whole time. Afterwards we went down to get something to eat. I couldn't even think about eating, but Lily hadn't eaten since her bottle at lunch. After we ate we got back up to the office and ended up waiting another hour for the Pediatrition. He was stuck in traffic and the nurse kept coming in telling us "15 more minutes". That was a long 15 minutes! We were glad we waited. Dr. Nong diagnosed her with pnuemonia. She got another nebulizer treatment and he prescribed 3 different medications for her. He was so kind and understanding. After going to get her prescription, he came back and said that 2 of them were not available at the clinic and asked us to follow him to his hospital so we could get it there. We all shared a cab and he generously paid the cab driver...refusing to take our money. Once we got inside the hospital he took us up to get the prescriptions. Robert thanked him again for the cab, and he in turn thanked us for adopting one of their orphans. My heart melted. We got the precriptions and he walked us out to hail us a cab back to our hotel. We came back long enough to feed Lily again, give her her antibiotics, check in with our moms and grab a quick bite before we had to head out for her next treatment at 10:00. The same nurse helped us again. She was very sweet. Lily screamed again for a while, but finally gave up and fell asleep. The nurse also told us how grateful she was that people like us come to adopt the babies. She told us that we were very lucky, and so was Lily. We agreed! Now we are back at the hotel and completely exhausted. We have to go back tomorrow for 2 more treatments. One at 9:30 and again at 5:30. We also have an appointment at the consulate at 3:00 to take an oath. Antoher busy day. Now that this story has turned into a novel...here are our praises and prayer requests:

Praises:
1)That we took Lily to the doctor today rather than waiting until tomorow or until we got home. She will now be able to finish her treatments in time for us to fly home. Who knows what would have happened if we had waited.
2)That we got to meet Dr. Nong and for his kindness to Lily and to us and doing all that he can to help us.
3)For the families here and for all of you at home who are continually praying for us...we are more grateful than we can say.

Prayer Requests:
1)Please pray for healing for Lily...that she would return to complete health quickly, and that she is able to get some good rest tonight.
2)For Robert and I...that we would trust God in this situation and we will find comfort in His soverignty.

I feel much better about this than I did when we first got to the clinic. At least we now know what the problem is and are able to do something for her. Thank you again for your continued prayers...please keep them coming. We can use all of the prayers we can get.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Robert's Blog

I've found writing to be helpful during this whole adoption process. It was mostly for me but I thought I'd share it with whomever wished to view my rambled thoughts.

http://thoughtsofafather.blogspot.com/

Robert

We Have Access!

Ok, so for some reason I am able to access the blog today. First things first...we got our luggage! They finally delivered them to our hotel room this afternoon around 3:00 (it's Monday here). We were so excited, it was like Christmas morning going through them! They were supposed to be delivered yesterday, but the person who was supposed to bring them couldn't find them at the airport...good grief! Well, now they are here and all is well. Hopefully they'll all get home ok on Friday.

Things here are going so well. Lily is still having issues with daddy, but we are working on it. She had lots of fun playing with him today. It will be much easier, I think, once we get home and get settled in there. Lily had her medical appointment this morning. She did very well. We had to go to 3 different rooms. First a Dr. listened to her heart, checked her body to make sure she looked ok and measured her head circumference...17 inches. Then we went to another Dr. who checked her ears (ear wax build up but no infection...yeah!), checked her eyes and stuck a tongue depressor in her mouth. She didn't care for that too much but she did very well. Last was the nurse who checked her weight (15.7 lbs...much smaller than we expected), her length (I forget now...but she is tall!) and her temp (96.8). She hated all of that because they had to take her and she doesn't like being taken from me. But she was a trooper! Afterwards we got to go shopping on Shaiman Island. It is really nice there...so many shops full of cute baby things. They are all standing in the doorways just waiting for us new parents! Of course we got her a couple of new dresses and 2 pairs of shoes. She is so much fun to shop for!

The most exciting thing happened at lunch today...she fed herself for the first time! I'll post pictures below so you can see. Let me just tell you now...this girl LOVES watermelon! Hopefully I'll be able to continue posting. If not, Jenny has been so kind as to offer to continue if I can't...thank you Auntie Jenny! Enjoy the pictures of the most beautiful baby ever!:o)

(There are lots more pictures at http://www.pbase.com/robertsphotos/china_2007 and
http://www.pbase.com/robertsphotos/lily_in_china )

Lily practicing with the chopsticks.


Lily's favorite game...blowing raspberries!




Playing peek-a-boo with her Nai Nai.



Some of the families in our group waiting to see the Doctors.




Lily and Mommy playing while we wait.





Lily sitting all by herself on the famous red couch at the White Swan hotel. She usually cries when we sit her by herself. She was such a good girl!






Mommy, Lily, Daddy and Laura, Annalise and Michael...a very sweet couple in our travel group. We've been together for the whole trip...our girls are from the same orphange in Jiangxi.







Lao Lao, Mommy, Lily, Daddy and Nai Nai on the red couch.



Mmmmm....watermelon!



Say "Ahhhhhh!".



Lily feeding herself...such a big girl! (And a very proud daddy in the background!)



She is such a crack up!


She can't get enough!