Why China?

"Why China?"We get asked this a lot.  We adopted from China because that's where our daughter was. It turned out to be the coolest experience of our lives. Really. We loved adopting from China! There are so many reasons why, here are a few of them.

This is from our experience alone. We did our research before we adopted, we linked ourselves with dozens of adoptive families from China, and we continue to learn and observe, and live adoption from China.

We had an amazing agency! They made everything so much easier! The process of international adoption is daunting to say the very least, but CCAI made the process really really do-able. I loved working with them.

 China is a Hague Convention country. That means that they are not corrupt. Your fees are locked in as soon as you are accepted as an adoptive parent. We knew from the first two weeks what we were going to have to pay. We knew what our trip was going to entail, and we knew that there would be no surprises as far as our trip or our fees were concerned.

 Orphans in China don't really stand a chance at a decent adult life. They are true outcasts, abandoned babies and children. Their chances of marrying, getting a university education, or a career are slim to none.

 Chinese mothers have huge hopes for their babies. They don't drink or smoke while they are pregnant, they get excellent prenatal care, and they hope very much for a baby that they can keep.

 Even Chinese babies (like ours) that are in less than ideal orphanages bond really well with their knew families. There are almost no attachment issues with Chinese orphans. They bond really really well. They are not abused, and that is huge. They may be neglected because of the baby to nanny ratio, but to the best that they are able, their caretakers love those little kids.

 Chinese people love that we are adopting their orphans. It was kind of weird when we were in China, and were frequently stopped and asked what we were doing with this baby. They express in their faces and their actions their gratitude for giving this baby a much better life.

 The trip to China to get your baby is the coolest trip ever!!! It's hard, but nothing that is that amazing is easy.

 Chinese kids are so super resilliant. They are strong, and smart, and trusting, and learn so quickly!

 We love this girl so much! I sometimes want to eat her!!

 I sort of think with dread at what Emily's existence would have been had we not gone for her. She has added so incredibly much joy and happiness to our family. She always was ours, we just needed to go get her. I get told at least once a week by various people, that they have felt drawn to China. It is a scary process to start that requires so much faith. But, the knowledge that we had a daughter on the other side of the world was one of the most incredible humbling experiences of my life as well. I don't know exactly how to write this, but if you have every felt that pull, it is real!! Listen to it. You will never regret it for a second. Do you have a child on the other side of the world?

Sleeeeeeeeeeeep

We love this baby to the ends of the earth and back! We are just hoping beyond all that the little empress will learn that there are times to be awake and there are times which are best spent sleeping!! 3 pm for example; perfect time to be awake and playing and jabbering and smiling and kissing! 3 am for example; perfect time to be completely unconscious and dreaming about frogs in couture leotards dancing to the best music crickets can make! None the less, she is greatest thing to happen to us in the past 8 years for sure!

Thanksgiving Surgery

 On Sunday Emily went to church! So cute! She had an abscess that had formed just below her nose and it was super painful to her. We sent a photo of it to her surgeon who told us that she would be fine to be seen the following Tuesday.

On Monday we hung out. On Tuesday we went to her initial appointment at the Cleft Palate clinic and met her doctor who told us "We need to take care of that abscess tomorrow. I've just had a cancellation and her cleft isn't that big so we'll just do that too." Tomorrow huh? We were meant to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house with all of Gary's family. A few phone calls later, and a restless night sleep and the next day we headed back up for our little girl to have surgery.

 She makes hospital clothes look good! Her poor little lip was so incredibly sore! 

 So tiny!

It was so sad when they took her back. She was a total champ though! I totally threw my phone away at lunch 10 minutes later and had a few dramatic moments trying to find it and finally a darling employee dug through said trash and found it for me! We hung out in the waiting room and cuddled her blanket that smelled like her and waited.

 She was in for about 3 hours. She came out of anesthesia nicely. The surgery was rough! They put tubes in her ears, drained her abscess (and left it open) closed her soft palate and put in a prosthetic hard palate. She had to have her tongue stitched to her cheek for 24 hours so she wouldn't choke. That tongue stitch was the WORST! Because they didn't want her messing with that, her arms were in restraints that didn't allow them to bend. NO THUMB! It was sad!

 Fluffy hair! We held her the entire time. Gary stayed all night, I went home as our two youngest were struggling a little bit. We had a giant sleepover in the big bed. Gary stayed up and held her all night!

She had a bit of a fever so they stripped her shirt. The next morning the tongue stitch came out and the thumb went in! It was so sad though, it felt all wrong. She kept trying to suck her thumb but it just wasn't right. She was frustrated and sad.

 

 She was so patient with all of the stuff hooked up to her. She eventually got put down and liked the freedom to move around.

 We got a free Thanksgiving dinner in the cafeteria. This hospital was so great! The staff, every one of them were so kind. 

 We went on lots of walks. She looks huge in that little stroller! We got to come home on Thanksgiving day. Emily did great. She responded well to pain meds and was patient with the rest. It was really hard to get her to eat, and we had to feed her with the syringe every meal. She was supposed to get 36 oz of fluids a day, we were lucky if she'd get 9! 

 No tubs with tubes for a few days, so she got to tub in the sink. She was hardly impressed.

 I can't believe it hasn't even been a week. She's amazing. She got her first round of immunizations today and has been the happiest, cutest most lovable little that there is! Her little mouth is doing great. She's eating well and she's happy, and she's totally not sleeping! love love love our Emily Amnda

You're so amazing!

 I wanted to write this sooner, but life gets so busy! There is so much to do, and so little time. Emily has also decided completely against the entire idea of sleeping, so we're tired on top of busy.

 We have had our girl for a month now. It is amazing. I get asked all of the time "What's it like?" I won't pretend that we've arrived anywhere, or even that I know "what it's like" to have an adopted daughter, but I will tell you what it's like for us after 1 month. It's incredible. It's so much more awesome than I could have even fathomed.

 People say to us daily "You are so amazing!" Really? Our adoption wasn't a humanitarian project. I really want people to understand that. We didn't go to China with the idea of saving a child, we went to China to get our daughter that was waiting for us there.

 I knew she was my daughter before we left, before we even met her, I knew in my head that I had a daughter in China. When I met her, my heart completely enveloped her, and my whole heart and soul knew her!  She was our daughter. In the time that we have been home with her, and in the time that we have spent getting to know her, she is very familiar. The spirit that we felt during 1 full year of paper work, the hundreds of prayers that ascended on her behalf, the time and energy that we devoted to bringing her home all now have come together, and that familiarity was her all along.

 We love her so much!!! We love her because we had to work so hard and wait so long to get her, and because she is so cute, and because she kisses like a super professional kisser, and because she is so fun! But far and above all of that, we love her because she is our daughter, and sister, and niece, and granddaughter. She is a part of our family.

 She's not an orphan any more. She waited for us for a long time. We got matched with her 2 months after her paperwork was finished to make her "adoptable". She is thriving so much! She has grown an inch and a half and gained 3 pounds in less than 3 weeks!

 We had our first post placement home study this week. It was awesome. Em commandeered my nieces cookie at dessert and made it her own!! My cute little niecey didn't even have a choice!! She inhaled that thing. She loooooooves chocolate.

This would be the very last picture of the nice sleeping baby. No more of that. Starting that night, sleeping was like laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame! No more of that nonsense! Oh well, sleeping is probably highly overrated anyway. This phase can't last forever right? It is just a phase right?

Baby's 2!!

Emily turned 2 today! She slept super late, we were all missing her and wanting her to wake up! It was such a fun morning!

The paper was waaaaaay cooler than the presents! She liked her presents, and was sticking them in her mouth which is exactly what her OT wants her to be doing. Good girl!

Aunt Mickey gave her her first haircut! It was very cute.

Em also got blessed in our church today. She looked so pretty in her beautiful dress that my amazing mother made. The Chinese writing on her sash is her chinese name.

My mom and Em.

 Then it was on to an amazing dinner, and birthday party! She loved when we sang to her.

She completely went to town on her cake! It was so cute!!

She was completely wiped out at the end of the day! We had so many family and friends come over, it was such a fun day! Oh how we love this little girl! She has been the greatest blessing in our family!

1 week home

One week home. Emily is such a blast! We had her doctor's appointment where we learned that our girl is most likely turning 2! We're going to have a party!!

 She always manages to get a leg kicked up when she sleeps.

 Em slept through the night last night!! It was our best night since we've been home. I hope she follows that up again tonight. We've been going on no sleep for far too long.

 She is getting stronger every day. She is holding her body a lot more and has started putting weight on her legs! She loves to stand and for sure prefers it to sitting. She's been using her arms a lot more. Her hands are still super uncoordinated and she can't figure out how to make those little tiny fingers serve her at all. She starts occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and mental development soon, and will have them weekly for the next several months.

 Em loves her sisters so much and they LOVE her right back! I have all the help I need when they are home.

 Her appetite has increased 10 fold. She drinks several 6 oz bottles of formula every day, and eats about 3 jars of baby food with a big bowl of rice cereal every day too. Beats the "3, 4oz bottles of formula supplemented with warm sugar water" that she was getting in the orphanage. She's going to GROW!

 We've had so many awesome family and friends come to visit us and we love it so much. Emily still gets overstimulated pretty easily and will start to zone out, but we're seeing that less and less. She's already giving up some of her institutional behaviors, which we like to see.

 She is super ticklish and has the BEST laugh! We are so in love with this baby! She has been the greatest blessing to our family. I am so glad that Heavenly Father chose adoption as a way to grow our family. Biological children are an incredible blessing for sure, but adoption has been an equally incredible blessing for our family.