Girl's Weekend

Hope was kissing herself in the mirror

Getting her hair cut

All done

At the mall play area

Mary Kate standing on an egg

Hope is floating in the bowl of cereal

Time to slide down the bacon


Mike and the boys headed to Wisconsin for the weekend to see one of his brother's get ordained. It would have been nice for all of us to go, but I knew it had the potential to be confusing to Hope, and, as I've mentioned before, Hope is NOT a good traveler. So, the girls and I stayed home and I declared it a Girl's Weekend. On Friday night I gave the girls baths and I told Mary Kate I would blow dry her hair for the first time if she wanted. She decided she wanted me to do it, so after her bath, she sat on my lap and I blew her hair dry. Hope decided that she didn't want to be left out, so when Mary Kate was finished, Hope sat in my lap and cocked her head to the side to let me know that she wanted her hair dryed too. It was so cute.

On Saturday morning, Mary Kate and I took Hope to the "beauty parlor" to have her hair trimmed. It was pretty uneven in the back, so I wanted it trimmed in the back so it will come in nicer. Hope was a CHAMP at the "beauty parlor". It's a place that specializes in kid's haircuts and they do it right (and fast). After that, the girls and I went to the mall to do a little shopping and to play, of course. This was a great place for Hope to practice being a little more adventurous with her gross motor skills. She does not seem to have great coordination, although our pediatrician thinks that may get better once we have the tubes put in her ears. Overall, it was a pretty good Girl's Weekend!

Micah's Birthday

Micah is posing with fish tank accessory

Micah was excited to receive an X-Wing Star Wars Lego set

Micah is posing by the garden he planted on our deck

He harvested 8 green beans. We ate them with his birthday lunch.

Mom and Hope at the baseball game

Dad and Mary Kate

Samuel

Cute Hope

Mary Kate

Micah watching the game


Micah's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. He got to open his presents from us before church. I made waffles for breakfast and then we headed to church. After church, we had lunch, which included the 8 green beans from Micah's garden. The boys played Legos for a while and then we headed to a minor league baseball game. We came home, did some more Legos and went to bed. It was a full and fun day!

Micah's 7th Birthday Party

We celebrated Micah's 7th birthday at a local park on the day before his birthday. We continued with our tradition of having a family-only party. I keep waiting for the year when Micah asks to have a party with his friends from school, but the day hasn't come yet. It probably helps that his birthday is in the middle of summer and his friend's aren't at the forefront of his mind.

Micah asked for a Star Wars birthday this year. Mike and I spent many hours making a cake that was supposed to look like an X-Wing Fighter. The cake caved in while we were making it and caused great frustration for Mike and I. I am pretty sure that Mike is going to start boycotting our cake decorating adventures soon. Other than the cake disaster, everyone seemed to have a great time at the party, especially the birthday boy!!!

Blue Moon Ice Cream

One of Mike's brother's and his family were on vacation when we first arrived home from China. When they returned home, they were wanting to meet Hope. They picked up some Blue Moon ice cream and came over to our house for dessert one night. I'm not sure if Hope had ever had an ice cream cone before. We had never given her one up to the point. It was like instinct. She knew exactly what to do and she looked so cute with the blue ice cream all over her face.

18 Months Old

Hope turned 18 months old on Friday. I was able to snap a couple of pictures. I have found that if I place her on the edge of the porch, she's not sure how to get off and I can get a couple of pictures before she gets too agitated. I have forgotten what a game it can be to take pictures of a toddler.

Our transition home continues to go well. We have been blessed with some delicious meals, which have definitely helped as I continue to get used to our new normal. Hope also seems to be adjusting well. We finally made the decision to transfer her out of our bed. Mike put the pack 'n play right next to my side of the bed. I laid her in there for her nap and laid next to her with my arm in the pack 'n play while she worked herself to sleep. It seemed to work OK. We are excited at the thought of no longer sharing our bed with a toddler who sleeps sideways and kicks in her sleep. On the other hand, we know that co-sleeping is very good for attachment, which is why we decided to still keep her very close to us at night, just not in the same bed.

Yesterday Hope was diagnosed with her second ear infection since we have had her. I also took her to a clinic while we were in China and had her treated for an ear infection. In the research I did before leaving for China, I learned that many (possibly most) cleft-affected kids suffer from chronic ear infections until they are able to get tubes in their ears. We will be getting into an ENT ASAP, but until then, I'm thinking she may have to be on antibiotics to take care of this issue. She is in better spirits today than yesterday, which is a good thing for all of us.

Sisters

I LOVE putting my kids in matching outfits. It makes me very happy. I have a special relationship with The Children's Place around Christmas and Easter because of this very reason. Well, you can imagine that I was excited to have a couple of matching outfits for the girls. I tried to get a cute photo, but it just wasn't happening.

Overall, our adjustment has been going very well. Hope is sleeping and eating wonderfully and she and the other kids are playing really well together. I didn't know what to expect and feel very blessed that things are going so well.

Welcome Home!!!

Hope and I arriving in the terminal


Daddy and Hope are reunited


Our first family picture (MK was not cooperating)


Hope meeting her Grandma for the first time


Mary Kate giving Hope a hug


My parents, Hope and I left Hong Kong on Sunday morning at 9:15am. We had a direct flight to Detroit, which lasted 14 1/2 hours. Let's just say it was a L.O.N.G. flight. Hope took 3 little cat naps the entire flight and that's it. She was awake for about 12 hours of the flight and unhappy for about 11 of those hours. It's kind of like labor... once it's over, you kind of forget how bad it was. A year from now, I will probably look back on the flight with fond memories, but right now it's a little too fresh. But, we survived.

We arrived to Detroit on time, but Hope and I had to go through a special line for immigrants. The man who was working the line did not know what he was doing (he told me so himself) and it took him a long time to process the adopting children coming through his line. Because of this (despite my valiant effort of running like the wind through the Detroit airport) we missed our connecting flight home. I was disappointed. I shed some tears. And then I moved on. The next flight out was only 1 1/2 hours later, so thankfully we didn't have to wait too long. Hope slept through the entire flight (it lasted all of 30 minutes), which was beautiful.

We arrived at the airport and I was so excited to see my husband and kids. They were joined by about 20 other family members and friends, which was really fun. The kids were so excited to meet Hope and she seemed interested in them too. We got home around 5pm and I put Hope to bed at 6pm. She slept all the way until 8 the next morning. She clearly needed to catch up on some sleep. Thankfully, she has had no problem switching her days and nights since she skipped an entire night of sleep on our flight home. That is a huge positive. I am so thankful to be home and to be beginning our new lives together.

Hong Kong

My parents, Hope and I flew to Hong Kong early Saturday morning. Hope did really well on the flight, which was a relief. It's a short flight, so we arrived with plenty of time to head to downtown Hong Kong to catch lunch. We figured out how to use Hong Kong's metro system and headed to the heart of downtown Hong Kong. We ate lunch at McDonald's of all places and then walked around for a while. We were all pretty beat, so we didn't stay out long. We knew it would be a long day of flying the next day.

Change of Plans

Mike has convinced me to fly all the way home. Apparently some of you are wanting to greet us at the airport and meet Hope. That obviously would not work if I only flew as far as Detroit. If you are wanting to meet us at the airport, you can contact Mike for the flight information. I can tell you that our flight is scheduled to land at 2:42pm on Sunday afternoon.

On a different note, I had a funny incident happen last night. My hotel room has two twin beds and a crib. I do not put Hope to bed in the crib. She has never slept in a crib before (she co-slept with her foster mother) and I'm not going to force her into an isolating sleeping arrangement at a critical point in our attachment process. Our hotel room in Wuhan had a king size bed, so we all slept together in that bed. My hotel here has two twin beds. I lay with Hope until she falls asleep, but she usually ends up sleeping sideways, so once she's asleep, I transfer myself to the other twin bed (my parents have a separate hotel room). At around 3:30am, I woke up. I looked at Hope's bed and it looked empty. So I got out of bed to look closer. Sure enough, it was empty. I went into the bathroom and found her playing in there (I leave a small light on in the bathroom for middle of the night trips). She has never done anything like that before. She's a pretty heavy sleeper. Well, I brought her back to bed and laid with her until she fell asleep again. I decided I better stay in her bed for the rest of the night, just in case. This morning when I got up to go to the bathroom, I noticed that the only two hair rubberbands that I brought for myself were in the toilet. Thanks, Hope. :) I'm thankful she didn't get her hands on my wedding ring.

Dinner Cruise and Red Couch Photo

Last night our travel group went on a dinner cruise. It was buffet style, so I sent my parents to get some food for Hope right away. I took my time feeding Hope and decided that I would go through the buffet line at the end. Unfortunately, by the time I went through the line, all of the edible food (i.e. sweet and sour chicken) was gone. The only food left was what I would consider inedible (i.e. chicken feet and pig knuckles). So, my dinner consisted of mainly white rice. Bummer. After "dinner" we were all able to go out on the upper deck and enjoy the beautiful views down the river. Guangzhou is the third largest city in China, with Beijing and Shanghai being larger. It is quite developed, so we were able to admire the lit up buildings while we passed. It was really nice.

Today we did the legendary Red Couch photo. There is a red couch in the White Swan hotel and for years, travel groups have been taking pictures of their babies on this couch. We all dressed our kids (mostly girls, but a few boys) in Chinese silk outfits and put them on the couch. Hope is in the top row in the purple. Don't worry, I was crouched down behind the couch, holding her in place. All of the children in our travel group came off of the Waiting Child list. Six of the children have cleft lip and palate (all of the lips have been repaired and two of the palates have even been repaired), two of the girls have minor cerebral palsey, one of the girls is post-surgery spina bifida and one girl is missing an eye. There are other medical conditions in our group as well. While their conditions are all different, their need was the same. These are children who needed a home. They needed a mom and a dad to love them unconditionally and to provide them with the medical help that they need. These children represent the small percentage of children who manage to get out. According to one book that I read, it is estimated that there are 1,000,000 children (mostly girls) who are living in orphanages across China. Last year, China only released approx. 2,500 of these children for international adoption (keep in mind that there are approx. 18,000 families waiting in line). It is heartbreaking to think of all of the children who will never find a family. We are thankful that God led us to Hope and that she is not one of the hundreds of thousands who will grow up in crowded loneliness.

Visa Appointment

Today was Hope's visa appointment day with the U.S. Consulate. Thankfully, we did not have to attend the appointment in person. Two representatives from our adoption agency were able to go on our behalf. My job was to stay in my hotel room in case there were questions with my paperwork and the representatives needed to call me. I just received the phone call from my rep saying that there had been no questions with the paperwork and we are good to go. It is Wednesday afternoon here and the visa will be ready for us to pick up on Friday afternoon. We will fly to Hong Kong on Saturday morning and then fly home on Sunday morning at 9:15am (which is Saturday night at 9:15pm Easter Time). The flight is a direct flight from Hong Kong to Detroit. The original plan was that I would continue on from Detroit and fly all the way home, arriving at our local airport on Sunday afternoon. However, after our last disastrous plane ride with Hope, I will only be flying as far as Detroit. Mike will pick us up in Detroit so that I don't have to suffer through one more flight. Hope will probably scream the whole way home from Detroit in our car (have I mentioned that she doesn't travel well), but at least I don't have to "manage" her. She will be strapped in her car seat and she can scream to her heart's content. I'm sure it will be music to my ears since I will have Mike at my side and I will only be a couple of hours away from seeing the rest of my kids. Sunday can't get here soon enough!!!

Trip to the Zoo!

Today we had the opportunity to go to the Guangzhou Zoo. Despite the fact that it was HOT, it was a nice way to spend our morning. The zoo has quite the variety of animals... hippos, giraffes, zebras, elephants and a panda bear!!! Unfortunately, I could not get a good picture of the panda bear. I'm sure my dad was able to get one with his nice camera, but we won't be able to see those pictures until we get home. Hope did really well until the end of the trip. It was getting close to her nap time and this girl means business when it comes to her naps. Enjoy the pictures.

Cleft lip and palate

I have not really blogged about Hope's cleft lip and palate. This is the medical condition she was born with and is probably the sole reason her birth parents felt like they could not raise her. They would never have had access to all of the help that she will need over the years. Hope was the recipient of an aid foundation that repaired her lip about 10 months ago. The difference is amazing. We have several pictures of her before the surgery and she is hardly recognizable. Her palate, on the other hand, has not been repaired. It is still wide open. Her teeth are a mess. She has about four teeth that are in her open palate. Her gum line doesn't connect and the teeth she does have do not look to be in very good shape. In fact, we immediately noticed that one of her teeth was very rotten. In the week that she has been in our care, she has lost that tooth. I don't know when it fell out, but the tooth is gone. Other issues that we can notice is that her jaw doesn't line up and that the bridge of her nose is very flat.

What does all of this mean? It means that poor Hope is going to have at least 5 - 10 surgeries over the years. Her first surgery will be to repair her palate. We will try to get her in for that surgery as soon as possible. She is very verbal, but there are so many sounds that she is unable to make because she doesn't have a roof to her mouth. We need to get that taken care of ASAP. She will probably need at least one more palate surgery as she grows and her palate needs to grow with her. She will need a lip revision surgery, possibly two nose jobs and jaw surgery. She will also need a bone graft surgery, where bone will be taken from her hip and put into her gums to make a complete gumline. From what I understand, she will probably also need tubes in her ears. On top of all of this, she will need extensive dental work and orthodontia. I know of one woman whose cleft child needed so much dental work that the bill literally came to $20,000. Thankfully, we have an additional insurance policy that we can purchase that will cover all of Hope's medical procedures, including dental and orthodontia work. Not everyone has this option, so we are very thankful for it. Hope will also most likely require years of speech therapy.

While all of this is very overwhelming, we are thankful that the surgeries come one at a time. We are also thankful that Hope was made available for adoption so that she can have all of these issues fixed. By the time she reaches her teen years, you will never be able to tell that she once had all of these issues. She will be a regular teenager with a regular mouth. For now, we will take things one day at a time.