Saturday, February 7, 2009
update & pictures
I know its been along time since I updated, so here is a couple of pictures of the girls.
Katie has been with us almost 3 months now!! We continuously see so many changes in her. She now weighs 18.1lbs!! She has outgrown almost all of her clothes and is wearing a size 12 months now. She is not walking alone yet, but we know it won't be long. The ps has decided to only do her palate on 2-25,not her lip as was originally scheduled. Katie would be under anesthesia longer then she would like, and her palate is going to be a big surgery in itself. Her next surgery date for her lip repair is 5-13. Katie is trying to talk and is attempting so many words we can hardly believe it. She is on a pretty good schedule now and her eating is so improved. She still doesn't want much of anything with a texture, of which we haven't pushed as she can only have baby food consistancy food after surgery for several weeks. Also no bottle, so we have been trying to give her a cup so she will be use to it after surgery. Thats going as to be expected:)
Having a baby again has been a huge change in all of our lives, but Katie has truly been a blessing to our family that we may have missed had we not followed God, and listened to what direction He was leading us.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Its been 4 weeks & an update
I can hardly believe that it has been 4 weeks today since our precious beautiful daughter was placed in my arms. The tiny and scared baby who cried ALOT, now has her forever family and is very very happy. I love to hear her belly laughs and those sweet sweet smiles she gives. I love to watch her discover new toys and how they work. I love to see her sway her head to music and smile.
Its hard to believe that 5 1/2 weeks ago we started our travel journey to bring home Katie. In those 5 1/2 weeks we have traveled through 17 timezones, twice, been united with our adorable daughter, gone through many appointments in China and lived in a hotel for 2 weeks, 5 out of 8 of us got the stomach flu, Katie had surgery, and then 3 out of 8 got colds to boot!! It really has been quite a month to say the least. We are so grateful to have our daughter home with us to celebrate the best time of the year. Christmas. The time we celebrate our Saviors birth and His gift to us.
I haven't posted an update on Katies surgery as we have just had too much going on. Katie had surgery on 12-3. The plastic surgeon was unable to do all she hoped to. Katie has a very wide cleft lip and palate. The original plan was to do a lip adhesion, repair her soft palate, and ear tubes. Her soft palate was not able to be started. She now has what looks like half of an upper denture, of course with no teeth. The orthodontist will make changes to this every 1-2 weeks. The purpose of this is to mold her gums closer together. Her cleft is just too wide to repair and it needs to come closer. The plastic surgeon told us she has only had 2 1 yo have this. One suceeded and 1 did not. The one that suceeded was surgically put in with pins, and the other one , well the baby wouldn't leave it in their mouth. So far so good, although it is very difficult to put it in. Just try and picture putting a denture in a 12 month olds mouth. haha I know it sounds pretty funny doesn't it. I had a really hard time getting it in and took a break for awhile. Jeff was holding her as I had tried. So later that evening I tried on my own, on my first try I was unable to do it. I prayed "God please help me to do this, she needs this to help her palate", yes I alone was able to do it. Praise God!! So the PS hopes to do her next surgery in 2 months. We love the PS. She is also Brookes PS and is amazing. We have seen her on discovery health 3 times now for different cases. One of the reasons she didn't want to repair her soft palate was she felt it would affect her speech and if we can get things to move it is so much to Katies benefit in the longrun.
If you're wondering what is a lip adhesion is, well basically her nose has been put into place and the area under her nose is together. Her lip itself is not, so she looks like she has a split lip, or some may call it , an incomplete cleft lip. She is wearing the no no's, aka, arm restraints, but only at night and naps for the most part. The purpose for those is to keep her from touch the surgery site, as well as pulling out her ortho device.
We can hardly remember what life was like before Katie was with us. She has made huge milestones as far acclimating to family life. She loves all of us, and we all love her so much. We are still trying to get her to gain weight, as she hasn't gained much since coming home. We're still working on that one, but know in time she will catch up. She use to be tiny proportionally, however now she is not. She is 25-50% for her height, head & chest, however -3% for her weight. The Dr.s aren't too concerned at this point, but are keeping an eye on that.
Its hard to believe that 5 1/2 weeks ago we started our travel journey to bring home Katie. In those 5 1/2 weeks we have traveled through 17 timezones, twice, been united with our adorable daughter, gone through many appointments in China and lived in a hotel for 2 weeks, 5 out of 8 of us got the stomach flu, Katie had surgery, and then 3 out of 8 got colds to boot!! It really has been quite a month to say the least. We are so grateful to have our daughter home with us to celebrate the best time of the year. Christmas. The time we celebrate our Saviors birth and His gift to us.
I haven't posted an update on Katies surgery as we have just had too much going on. Katie had surgery on 12-3. The plastic surgeon was unable to do all she hoped to. Katie has a very wide cleft lip and palate. The original plan was to do a lip adhesion, repair her soft palate, and ear tubes. Her soft palate was not able to be started. She now has what looks like half of an upper denture, of course with no teeth. The orthodontist will make changes to this every 1-2 weeks. The purpose of this is to mold her gums closer together. Her cleft is just too wide to repair and it needs to come closer. The plastic surgeon told us she has only had 2 1 yo have this. One suceeded and 1 did not. The one that suceeded was surgically put in with pins, and the other one , well the baby wouldn't leave it in their mouth. So far so good, although it is very difficult to put it in. Just try and picture putting a denture in a 12 month olds mouth. haha I know it sounds pretty funny doesn't it. I had a really hard time getting it in and took a break for awhile. Jeff was holding her as I had tried. So later that evening I tried on my own, on my first try I was unable to do it. I prayed "God please help me to do this, she needs this to help her palate", yes I alone was able to do it. Praise God!! So the PS hopes to do her next surgery in 2 months. We love the PS. She is also Brookes PS and is amazing. We have seen her on discovery health 3 times now for different cases. One of the reasons she didn't want to repair her soft palate was she felt it would affect her speech and if we can get things to move it is so much to Katies benefit in the longrun.
If you're wondering what is a lip adhesion is, well basically her nose has been put into place and the area under her nose is together. Her lip itself is not, so she looks like she has a split lip, or some may call it , an incomplete cleft lip. She is wearing the no no's, aka, arm restraints, but only at night and naps for the most part. The purpose for those is to keep her from touch the surgery site, as well as pulling out her ortho device.
We can hardly remember what life was like before Katie was with us. She has made huge milestones as far acclimating to family life. She loves all of us, and we all love her so much. We are still trying to get her to gain weight, as she hasn't gained much since coming home. We're still working on that one, but know in time she will catch up. She use to be tiny proportionally, however now she is not. She is 25-50% for her height, head & chest, however -3% for her weight. The Dr.s aren't too concerned at this point, but are keeping an eye on that.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
And the world was perfect........
at least for a few minutes, to me. Katie and I were on the floor in her room when she crawled over to me, reached her arms up to be picked up, we went to the rocking chair and I held her as she stared into my eyes, we rocked, and she went to sleep.
Monday, November 24, 2008
We're Home!
We made it home safely. Jeff was feeling better, not great, but much better. Katie did very well on the flights/ She cried for less then a minute on only two occasions on our flight to Tokyo. She slept a bit, but was pretty happy. On the Tokyo to Detroit she did pretty good too. She cried a little bit, but nothing compared to what we were expecting. We were almost home free, 3 hours to go when I(Shannon) got what Jeff had. We thought he had eaten something bad to make him sick, but no, he must have had the stomach flu. Our flight was full of turbulance which made it even worse. I seriously have never been so happy to be home in my life. Jeff took such good care of us, even though he too was still not feeling back to normal, not to mention the jet lag. It is now Monday at 3am, and I am feeling much much better. Katie and Brooke were both up, just 1 hour after we went to bed. So I am letting Jeff get some very well deserved sleep. The girls are now sleeping but here I am wide awake.
Seeing our boys as we passed the exit doors was a sight for sore eyes let me tell you. They all seem to have grown in 2 weeks. They did such a good job while we were gone. We had some very dear friends of ours bring over a huge casserole dish of various barbcue for them one night, and other then that they cooked dinner for themselves everynight, and did the laundry, and cleaned the house. Our oldest son even had to take one of the younger boys to the dr. as his throat was hurting. I am truly blessed to have them. Proud is an understatement.
Today we have 2 dr appts for Katie. The pediatrician, and the plastic surgeon. Tomorrow we have an echocardiogram, ortho, and the ent. Even though I was sick our first 2 days home, today, or should I say yesterday I was able to spend alot more time with Katie. Let me tell you, she is adjusting so well. She absolutely loves each of her brothers and shows no fear. She is very curious and likes to look around at everything she has never seen before, and she loves all her new toys. She is sleeping well in her crib, although still getting use to the new time zone, which we all are. She even liked her car seat, which Brooke absolutely hated, and screamed all the way home from the airport. Katie is very antimated and has alot of expression. She wasn't too sure about our pets, we have 2 dogs, and 2 cats. Our dachshund is always wanting to give her kisses, and she is now starting to like the dogs.
I want to close this post by saying thank you to all of you who sent kind and encouraging words to us. Thank you for all your prayers. This journey was much different then our last journey to China. For all of our experiences we had we have learned so much, and are stronger people for it.
Seeing our boys as we passed the exit doors was a sight for sore eyes let me tell you. They all seem to have grown in 2 weeks. They did such a good job while we were gone. We had some very dear friends of ours bring over a huge casserole dish of various barbcue for them one night, and other then that they cooked dinner for themselves everynight, and did the laundry, and cleaned the house. Our oldest son even had to take one of the younger boys to the dr. as his throat was hurting. I am truly blessed to have them. Proud is an understatement.
Today we have 2 dr appts for Katie. The pediatrician, and the plastic surgeon. Tomorrow we have an echocardiogram, ortho, and the ent. Even though I was sick our first 2 days home, today, or should I say yesterday I was able to spend alot more time with Katie. Let me tell you, she is adjusting so well. She absolutely loves each of her brothers and shows no fear. She is very curious and likes to look around at everything she has never seen before, and she loves all her new toys. She is sleeping well in her crib, although still getting use to the new time zone, which we all are. She even liked her car seat, which Brooke absolutely hated, and screamed all the way home from the airport. Katie is very antimated and has alot of expression. She wasn't too sure about our pets, we have 2 dogs, and 2 cats. Our dachshund is always wanting to give her kisses, and she is now starting to like the dogs.
I want to close this post by saying thank you to all of you who sent kind and encouraging words to us. Thank you for all your prayers. This journey was much different then our last journey to China. For all of our experiences we had we have learned so much, and are stronger people for it.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Last post from China, the good, the bad and the ugly
Its Thursday night November 20th in China. I titled this the good the bad and the ugly. Let me tell you some good. I've packed about everything, the girls have had their baths and are sleeping, and we are coming home tomorrow. Yesterday was Katies birthday and we had a little party with some families coming to our guide Amys room. My heart was so full of thankfulness to God for allowing us to be with her. For those who don't know this already we thought we would get a referral call for a 3-4 yo. Mostly because our agency had told us most families are asking 0-2 and we were asking up to age 5. So we were very surprised to find out at our referral call that our daughter was 7 months. That day I prayed and have prayed often that since we left our age open to the Lord to match us perfectly with the daughter He chose that He would allow us to be with her for her first birthday, and God answered that prayer. I am so thankful for that. Our God is an awesome God and wants to give us the desire of our hearts.
The bad & ugly seem to run neck and neck, so I guess I will put it all out there. Wednesday evening approx 7 pm Jeff starting getting sick. He was violently ill with vomiting and diarrhea all night and most of today. The antibiotic the Dr. gave us at home Jeff had an allergic reaction to, he was not allergic to this as of a couple of years ago though. We know he is dehydrated and we are doing what we know to do. He must be better for us to fly tomorrow. We are still planning on it, as if he continues and shows no improvement this could be very bad. If you are a praying person please pray for all of us, and especially Jeff to get better asap.
When we adopted Brooke her transition was fairly easy to us. She was pretty happy go lucky most of the time, well except for the flight home. She cried almost the whole time. Katie is not so happy go lucky. She doesn't like to be held, unless you are feeding her her bottle. She doesn't want to be carried, and much more prefers the stroller. She does make eye contact and touches our faces and laughs and smiles, but we know her transition to attachment to us is not as easy as Brookes was. Today when we were at the U.S. Consulate our guide was holding her while I did some paperwork. Katie was leaning to me reaching her arms and started to cry for me, that was a good sign. I brought a sling carrier with me, however that hasn't worked well at all. Alot of the time when I hold her she stiffens up, cries and kicks. We really need alot of prayer. She will not allow us to try and rock her to sleep, she will lay down and start to bang her head on the crib floor. We rub her head and whisper gently to her, "no no Katie." At this point she will stop, however we may go through this several times until she goes to sleep. We aren't rookie parents here, but I can tell you we are definitely on survival mode. I feel very sorry for the people on the plane, as when we are on the bus that is some of the worst times. She doesn't like the confinement, she wants to be free to move around and thats not possible. Katie also still will not eat any solid food, we are lucky to get a couple little spoons of baby food, and shes not too happy with that.
If you are wondering why I'm sharing these things with you, its not to whine and cry, but to share with those who haven't btdt that its not always easy, even for those who have done this before. Also to ask for your prayers. We know the power of prayer and so much need those now.
God willing we will fly tomorrow to Tokyo to Detroit. I will give a post when we have arrived home, after I spend some family time.
Love to you all,
Shannon
The bad & ugly seem to run neck and neck, so I guess I will put it all out there. Wednesday evening approx 7 pm Jeff starting getting sick. He was violently ill with vomiting and diarrhea all night and most of today. The antibiotic the Dr. gave us at home Jeff had an allergic reaction to, he was not allergic to this as of a couple of years ago though. We know he is dehydrated and we are doing what we know to do. He must be better for us to fly tomorrow. We are still planning on it, as if he continues and shows no improvement this could be very bad. If you are a praying person please pray for all of us, and especially Jeff to get better asap.
When we adopted Brooke her transition was fairly easy to us. She was pretty happy go lucky most of the time, well except for the flight home. She cried almost the whole time. Katie is not so happy go lucky. She doesn't like to be held, unless you are feeding her her bottle. She doesn't want to be carried, and much more prefers the stroller. She does make eye contact and touches our faces and laughs and smiles, but we know her transition to attachment to us is not as easy as Brookes was. Today when we were at the U.S. Consulate our guide was holding her while I did some paperwork. Katie was leaning to me reaching her arms and started to cry for me, that was a good sign. I brought a sling carrier with me, however that hasn't worked well at all. Alot of the time when I hold her she stiffens up, cries and kicks. We really need alot of prayer. She will not allow us to try and rock her to sleep, she will lay down and start to bang her head on the crib floor. We rub her head and whisper gently to her, "no no Katie." At this point she will stop, however we may go through this several times until she goes to sleep. We aren't rookie parents here, but I can tell you we are definitely on survival mode. I feel very sorry for the people on the plane, as when we are on the bus that is some of the worst times. She doesn't like the confinement, she wants to be free to move around and thats not possible. Katie also still will not eat any solid food, we are lucky to get a couple little spoons of baby food, and shes not too happy with that.
If you are wondering why I'm sharing these things with you, its not to whine and cry, but to share with those who haven't btdt that its not always easy, even for those who have done this before. Also to ask for your prayers. We know the power of prayer and so much need those now.
God willing we will fly tomorrow to Tokyo to Detroit. I will give a post when we have arrived home, after I spend some family time.
Love to you all,
Shannon
Monday, November 17, 2008
OUR LAST DAY TOGETHER WITH THE ENTIRE GROUP
11/18/2008
Is the last day our entire group will be together, all but four families fly out tomorrow. Even Lineker flies home in the morning. We will always remember these families.
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