5 months

5 months ago today, we stood outside of  a tall white building in Zhengzhou, Henan, China.  We were with 12 other families all waiting to have our lives changed inevitably for the better as we received our new Chinese children. We had worked, waited, worried and worked, waited and worried some more over these precious little orphans. Finally, we were going to get them. 2 of them were already there, waiting for their parents!! It was one of the coolest, scariest, unique, amazing, and fabulous moments of my life. 5 months later, we are LOVING every single minute of our little China girl. So here is my picture heavy report of 5 months later.

 Em is so happy! She loves to play, loves to love, loves to kiss, and be kissed on. If anyone fusses over her and gets too close, they'll get kissed!

 She has the BEST bed head!! EVER!!

Her bed head get's photographed daily, it's so funny. As I'm looking at these, they aren't even funny ones. Sorry.

 Because of her cleft palate, her ears were in such a condition when she finally received her surgery, that we have reason to believe she couldn't really hear at all whilst in China. We don't believe that she had any concept of language at all, partially because of her ears, and probably because of neglect. She has started responding to language for the first time in the past couple of weeks. She'll sign on her own, she'll show us signs that we ask her to show, she'll give you a kiss if you ask for it, and she'll get excited over things. It's so awesome!

 In her silks for Chinese New Year.

 She loves her sisters, and is adored by them! Her therapists have been telling me "You guys need to quit rescuing and doing everything for her!" What??

 Lest we forget the child is indeed Chinese, she makes her awesome Chinese face upon request. So funny.

 My favorite thing ever, Emily is mobile!! She crawled across the floor 4 days ago completely on her own, and emptied out the diaper bag!! Best. Day. Ever! She is soooo much happier. She hasn't quit exploring all week long! She goes non stop! She also on that same day quit sleeping. For real. She doesn't want to stop going for any reason. So, we're tired. Again. 

 The high chair is her favorite place! She eats! She loves all food at all times. 

 We can't wait for summer. Em loves being outside. I wonder how much time if any at all she spent out of doors in China. She loves going out, and we can't wait to spend all of our time out rather than in.

 Em loves music and watching her sister's dance classes are happy times for her. We are excited for her to be able to dance herself. She loves any and all music.

We love this girl more than we can say. Adoption has been a tremendous blessing in our lives. She has brought so much more joy and happiness into our lives than we could have ever imagined. 

4 months

We have had Emily for nearly 17 weeks! It has been amazing! She is doing so much and growing so much! I just completed a Shutterfly book of our trip to China. It was so emotional to make. To look at picture after picture of my little girl who couldn't even sit up and could barely hold up her own head. She was lost and aloof, covered in little bug bites, skinny and weak. It was hard in a way to relive those days. She is just the coolest thing ever now. 

 Most unfortunately my phone is my main camera these days, and my pictures aren't that clear. I'll amend that. Emily loves her tub so much! She spends a lot of time splashing. I was bathing the dog the other day and she was standing next to the tub and she would kick and kick and kick until she was in the tub with Ruby. Gross. I'd pull her out and she'd yell at me and kick her little feet until she fell in head first again. There was only an inch or two of water, but she wanted it!!

 Check it out.  In those cheeks somewhere she has two dimples! It's amazing what proper nutrition will do for you. Her hair is no longer corse and it's growing so quickly. Her nails need to be trimmed a couple of times a week, and she's heavy! I'd better get some toned arms out of this deal.

 She eats EVERYTHING!! We have yet to feed her something that she does not love and gobble up. She eats in quantity and frequently! She's gained nearly 10 pounds and has gone up two diaper and clothing sizes.

 We have physical/occupational therapy weekly. Our county has an incredible early intervention program. The therapists that come to my house are amazing and Emily is thriving with them. She stands against furniture, and prefers standing to sitting. She's moving all over the floor though not properly crawling yet. 

 Eating is getting tons better since her palate surgery. She uses her lips now, and doesn't drool anymore. She is swallowing more thoroughly too. Heaven knows she's getting plenty of practice.

 Her age is still really difficult for me. G is fine with her being 27 months, but there is no way!! There is nothing that we can do about it anyway, but it's still frustrating that she is so incredibly delayed for a 27 month old! Her doctors think she's about 16 months old. I do too. Everything about her is 16 months old. She's realistically delayed for a 16 month old. It's almost a full year!! I really can't stand that bit.

 Miss Emily is adored!! She is the best thing to ever happen to this family. Truly. She is the best. There is so much love for this little girl! We are getting into a good rhythm with her. She was always ours, it feels so good to have her home. That is such and understatement.

I love the idea so much of adopting again. Having an enormous age gap is not ideal, still it has it's advantages. It seems overwhelming to start paperwork all over again. Our adoption was so super completely and totally amazing though, you can't just do that once right??? And there are sooooo many little orphans that need a mom and a dad! Maybe. Someday.Maybe a boy???

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?