Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Please Pray
There is a family in China right now to adopt their daughter, and when they arrived, they found their child extremely ill and in the hospital. They are trying everything possible to get their little girl to better medical care. This is a very sad, heartbreaking story. Prayer is certainly needed for the entire family.
Pictures of our Sweethearts
I made a few pictures of the girls before church on Sunday and wanted to share.
Since Saturday was her Gotcha Day anniversary, we let Mary Joyce wear her "China dress" to church. I love the way this picture came out, but she looks so grown up!
Here is our Katherine girl:
And making his/her blog debut is Baby #3. (Chet was finally able to get our scanner to work.) Anyway, this ultrasound was earlier than Katherine's first one, so you really can't tell much, but for what it's worth, here's the picture:
Since Saturday was her Gotcha Day anniversary, we let Mary Joyce wear her "China dress" to church. I love the way this picture came out, but she looks so grown up!
Here is our Katherine girl:
And making his/her blog debut is Baby #3. (Chet was finally able to get our scanner to work.) Anyway, this ultrasound was earlier than Katherine's first one, so you really can't tell much, but for what it's worth, here's the picture:
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Do-Over
I got a call yesterday afternoon that my doctor wants me to re-do some of my bloodwork and add a couple of extra tests. I didn't get a really clear answer from the nurse about what the concerns were other than my white count was low, as was something else that I don't remember the name of right now, but it is screened on the CBC. The white count could be maybe that I've picked up strep from the girls--I've started on antibiotics for that, but all-in-all, this is disconcerting to me. I'm going to pick up the orders tomorrow morning and get this show on the road. Pray that it is nothing or something very minor.
Updated to Add: I went and had the bloodwork redone this morning. Hopefully, it won't take too long to get the results back. I don't like waiting...
Updated to Add: I went and had the bloodwork redone this morning. Hopefully, it won't take too long to get the results back. I don't like waiting...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Then and Now
Mary Joyce on Gotcha Day, Sept. 13, 2006, almost 9 months old--
Mary Joyce Today, September 13, 2008, 2 1/2 years old--
Mary Joyce with her Daddy in Nanchang--
Mary Joyce with her Daddy Yesterday at Home--
Wow! Two years already--where has the time gone? The baby girl who was placed in our arms that September day in the Civil Affairs office in Nanchang China is now almost 3 years old. We were a bundle of nerves that day as we arrived at the office with 6 other families (the 7th would have their Gotcha Day a little later). As the babies were brought in by the SWI staff, the parents immediately started snapping pictures of the girls. I think most of us recognized Jaiden first with her head full of hair, but soon Chet and I picked out Mary Joyce. She was sleeping. That worried us a bit, as we didn't want her to be asleep when they handed her to us, considering we were total strangers to her at the time. Her name was called pretty quickly, and our little girl awoke as she was handed to us. Things were remarkably calm in that room, except for the anxious anticipation you could feel in the air from all of our 117b families, and the hurried, businesslike manner of LiPing and Bruce as they worked to make everything go as quickly as possible. That day, Tong Min Hao became Mary Joyce Minhao T_________.
On the bus back to the hotel, our little girl's personality truly started to emerge. She was giggling and bouncing up and down on our laps. That personality continued to show itself through the remainder of our time in China. She was the energetic, mischievous baby of the group, always into or in the middle of whatever was going on.
As these 2 years have passed, that big personality has only gotten bigger. Mary Joyce is a real character, and she always has something to say. She is funny, smart, stubborn, and active, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
God has truly blessed us as parents with the gift of our oldest daughter!
Mary Joyce Today, September 13, 2008, 2 1/2 years old--
Mary Joyce with her Daddy in Nanchang--
Mary Joyce with her Daddy Yesterday at Home--
Wow! Two years already--where has the time gone? The baby girl who was placed in our arms that September day in the Civil Affairs office in Nanchang China is now almost 3 years old. We were a bundle of nerves that day as we arrived at the office with 6 other families (the 7th would have their Gotcha Day a little later). As the babies were brought in by the SWI staff, the parents immediately started snapping pictures of the girls. I think most of us recognized Jaiden first with her head full of hair, but soon Chet and I picked out Mary Joyce. She was sleeping. That worried us a bit, as we didn't want her to be asleep when they handed her to us, considering we were total strangers to her at the time. Her name was called pretty quickly, and our little girl awoke as she was handed to us. Things were remarkably calm in that room, except for the anxious anticipation you could feel in the air from all of our 117b families, and the hurried, businesslike manner of LiPing and Bruce as they worked to make everything go as quickly as possible. That day, Tong Min Hao became Mary Joyce Minhao T_________.
On the bus back to the hotel, our little girl's personality truly started to emerge. She was giggling and bouncing up and down on our laps. That personality continued to show itself through the remainder of our time in China. She was the energetic, mischievous baby of the group, always into or in the middle of whatever was going on.
As these 2 years have passed, that big personality has only gotten bigger. Mary Joyce is a real character, and she always has something to say. She is funny, smart, stubborn, and active, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
God has truly blessed us as parents with the gift of our oldest daughter!
Two Years Ago Today...
Here is a part of our Adoption Voyages Post from September 13, 2006...
We are finally parents. After many months of paperchasing, waiting, driving back and forth to Atlanta, and many hours of wondering what was going to happen next, we are finally parents. Today we and our daughter came together. As she has been in our hearts for months, today, she is in our arms.
This morning, we got up, went to breakfast, and ate with two other couples. Everyone was excited. We were told to prepare certain documents, and some other things, and that at 11:00, we would leave to go get the children. At 10:30, Bruce, our facilitator, came to our room, and said, “Let’s go! We early!” So off we went!
On the way to the Civil Affairs office, all of the guys had their video cameras out, and were taping everything around them. When we got there, they took us up an elevator, and into this room, and after reviewing some forms to make sure that they had correct information on who everyone was and where everyone lived.
Then they brought in the babies all at once. We saw Mary Joyce, and she was asleep. Thankfully, she woke up before they gave her to us. (We didn’t want her to wake up on the bus being held by a stranger and have a major freak out session.)
I’ve heard about “Gotcha Days” where the kids are screaming, everything is chaos, and there is no time for anyone to think before getting their child. This wasn’t really like that. All of the children were being held by a worker, and they called us up one at a time, and gave us our daughters.
Mary Joyce is the most beautiful child we have ever seen.
She didn’t cry or scream, and she even smiled at us. We gave her a toy, (Debbie, the lamb you gave us is a big hit. She loves it!!!), and after a little while, they took our picture.
We went back to the hotel, and tried to feed her. She wasn’t too interested in the bottle, but Fruit Puffs are being consumed at a pretty good clip. She is also a really big wiggle worm. Changing her diaper and her clothes was a two-person job, and we almost needed reinforcements. But we got through it.
Later that day…
This afternoon, we went to the Civil Affairs office. We explained why we were adopting from China, and promised to always love her and take care of her. Then we went to the Notary Public’s office. A Chinese Notary Public is more like a judge than a Notary Public. Not only did she verify our documents, but she also had to give final approval. When she did so, Mary Joyce became ours in the eyes of the Chinese government. As far as they are concerned, the adoption is complete. All we need now is her Chinese passport (she’s not a US citizen until we touch down back in the states), and an entry visa from US immigration. We will get the passport later this week, and the rest in Guangzhou.
If it wasn’t so frowned upon by those in charge, we would love to be able to contact her foster family, because someone there really did a good job taking care of her. Developmentally, she is almost on target, which is kind of a rarity among adoptees from China.
We are starting to see more and more of her personality. She is a very active little girl. She is always on the move. Trying to get her clothes changed, for example, is an adventure every time. She isn’t belligerent; she just has other things she would rather be doing.
After the notary’s office, we walked to Wal-Mart to pick up some bottled water, cokes, and baby supplies. (For other adoptive families who are reading all of this, and finding it exhausting, we did about 3 days worth of stuff in one day.) Mary Joyce, who had fallen asleep at the Notary’s office, slept in her Snugli all the way through the Wal-Mart trip.
We ate supper with Kim, Scott, and Jaiden, and we had to eat in shifts. Chet ate first while Dusty fed Mary Joyce. The child loves her congee—almost as much as she loves banana fruit puffs. Then we traded off. Our very tired little girl had a bit of a melt-down, so we didn’t get to eat quite as much as we would have liked. We’ll get it figured out, though. It has been an exhausting, wonderful day for all of us.
We came back to the room, and decided to get Mary Joyce ready for bed. We were a little unsure as to how she would react to a bath, but she loved it. Mary Joyce is finally in her crib for the night after several laps around the hall of the hotel. Daddy was finally able to get her to drift off.
Our hope and our prayers are that she sleeps through the night, tonight. We’ll see.
We are finally parents. After many months of paperchasing, waiting, driving back and forth to Atlanta, and many hours of wondering what was going to happen next, we are finally parents. Today we and our daughter came together. As she has been in our hearts for months, today, she is in our arms.
This morning, we got up, went to breakfast, and ate with two other couples. Everyone was excited. We were told to prepare certain documents, and some other things, and that at 11:00, we would leave to go get the children. At 10:30, Bruce, our facilitator, came to our room, and said, “Let’s go! We early!” So off we went!
On the way to the Civil Affairs office, all of the guys had their video cameras out, and were taping everything around them. When we got there, they took us up an elevator, and into this room, and after reviewing some forms to make sure that they had correct information on who everyone was and where everyone lived.
Then they brought in the babies all at once. We saw Mary Joyce, and she was asleep. Thankfully, she woke up before they gave her to us. (We didn’t want her to wake up on the bus being held by a stranger and have a major freak out session.)
I’ve heard about “Gotcha Days” where the kids are screaming, everything is chaos, and there is no time for anyone to think before getting their child. This wasn’t really like that. All of the children were being held by a worker, and they called us up one at a time, and gave us our daughters.
Mary Joyce is the most beautiful child we have ever seen.
She didn’t cry or scream, and she even smiled at us. We gave her a toy, (Debbie, the lamb you gave us is a big hit. She loves it!!!), and after a little while, they took our picture.
We went back to the hotel, and tried to feed her. She wasn’t too interested in the bottle, but Fruit Puffs are being consumed at a pretty good clip. She is also a really big wiggle worm. Changing her diaper and her clothes was a two-person job, and we almost needed reinforcements. But we got through it.
Later that day…
This afternoon, we went to the Civil Affairs office. We explained why we were adopting from China, and promised to always love her and take care of her. Then we went to the Notary Public’s office. A Chinese Notary Public is more like a judge than a Notary Public. Not only did she verify our documents, but she also had to give final approval. When she did so, Mary Joyce became ours in the eyes of the Chinese government. As far as they are concerned, the adoption is complete. All we need now is her Chinese passport (she’s not a US citizen until we touch down back in the states), and an entry visa from US immigration. We will get the passport later this week, and the rest in Guangzhou.
If it wasn’t so frowned upon by those in charge, we would love to be able to contact her foster family, because someone there really did a good job taking care of her. Developmentally, she is almost on target, which is kind of a rarity among adoptees from China.
We are starting to see more and more of her personality. She is a very active little girl. She is always on the move. Trying to get her clothes changed, for example, is an adventure every time. She isn’t belligerent; she just has other things she would rather be doing.
After the notary’s office, we walked to Wal-Mart to pick up some bottled water, cokes, and baby supplies. (For other adoptive families who are reading all of this, and finding it exhausting, we did about 3 days worth of stuff in one day.) Mary Joyce, who had fallen asleep at the Notary’s office, slept in her Snugli all the way through the Wal-Mart trip.
We ate supper with Kim, Scott, and Jaiden, and we had to eat in shifts. Chet ate first while Dusty fed Mary Joyce. The child loves her congee—almost as much as she loves banana fruit puffs. Then we traded off. Our very tired little girl had a bit of a melt-down, so we didn’t get to eat quite as much as we would have liked. We’ll get it figured out, though. It has been an exhausting, wonderful day for all of us.
We came back to the room, and decided to get Mary Joyce ready for bed. We were a little unsure as to how she would react to a bath, but she loved it. Mary Joyce is finally in her crib for the night after several laps around the hall of the hotel. Daddy was finally able to get her to drift off.
Our hope and our prayers are that she sleeps through the night, tonight. We’ll see.
Friday, September 12, 2008
An Update on Our Crazy Week
Our crazy week started last Saturday when Katherine started running fever due to a reaction to her MMR vaccine. This meant little-to-no sleep for anyone except Mary Joyce on Saturday night and no church for Katherine and me on Sunday. She was doing some better by lunchtime Sunday, so she and I went and met Chet and Mary Joyce for lunch and stopped to run a couple of errands on the way home. We decided to divide and conquer, so Katherine and I went to Target for a few things, and Chet and Mary Joyce went in Books-a-Million to get a book he needed for work. While in BAM, Mary Joyce was hanging onto her Daddy's hand and swinging herself around. She gets a bit overzealous sometimes, and she pulled her elbow out of joint (nursemaid's elbow). So, here we are on Sunday afternoon making a run to our pediatrician's after-hours clinic, which is in the next county where their main office is located. Thankfully, they weren't very busy and got us in and out quickly. Almost as soon as the doctor popped her arm back in socket, she was fine. (She keeps telling us the doctor "squished" her arm and made it "all better.") After that adventure and the fact that Katherine's fever came back, the girls and I stayed home again Sunday night. Fever finally broke sometime during the night on Sunday night/Monday morning.
Monday was my first ob/gyn appointment. It went well. The appointment was with the same doctor who delivered Katherine. We had our first ultrasound (sorry, no picture yet...we're having scanner issues) and saw baby's heartbeat. The doctor said that things looked as good as they possibly could at this point. I go back on October 6. Got back home and found out the sitter had to call in reinforcements, as Mary Joyce had a major meltdown when we left (a fairly new occurrence for her). She also only had about 30 minutes of nap, if that, so she did not sleep well that night. She never does when she is overly tired. Of course, since she didn't sleep well, neither did we.
Tuesday, Katherine broke out with the rash that is a side-effect of the MMR. It looked worse than it seemed to bother her, but she was fussier than usual. Wednesday, more of the same--rash is better, but still fussy and both girls had runny noses.
Thursday at lunch, we finally decided to take Katherine to the doctor, as she was still really fussy and had added a cough to the runny nose. I took her in, and as it turns out, she tested positive for strep. Evidently with little ones, it can manifest itself almost like a head cold, and they don't always run fever. The doctor's office policy is to go on and prescribe antibiotics for siblings who are showing any symptoms, and we really figure Mary Joyce has it, too--she has this cast-iron resistance level where she just doesn't get very sick with anything. So, now both girls are on antibiotics for strep, and I'm trying my best not to get it. I have become the queen of hand sanitizer.
Today, I went to the lab to have my bloodwork done from my Monday doctor's appointment. My doctor's office in GA did all of their blood draws, etc., in the office, but this practice sends you to the lab. My arm hurts, but that is done, thankfully. And, once again, Mary Joyce decided not to take a nap this afternoon, and she is already having a very rough night.
Please tell me that next week will be better than this one!
On one cute note, Katherine has learned to wave, and tonight when she was in the tub, she grinned at me, waved, and said, "Hi!"
Monday was my first ob/gyn appointment. It went well. The appointment was with the same doctor who delivered Katherine. We had our first ultrasound (sorry, no picture yet...we're having scanner issues) and saw baby's heartbeat. The doctor said that things looked as good as they possibly could at this point. I go back on October 6. Got back home and found out the sitter had to call in reinforcements, as Mary Joyce had a major meltdown when we left (a fairly new occurrence for her). She also only had about 30 minutes of nap, if that, so she did not sleep well that night. She never does when she is overly tired. Of course, since she didn't sleep well, neither did we.
Tuesday, Katherine broke out with the rash that is a side-effect of the MMR. It looked worse than it seemed to bother her, but she was fussier than usual. Wednesday, more of the same--rash is better, but still fussy and both girls had runny noses.
Thursday at lunch, we finally decided to take Katherine to the doctor, as she was still really fussy and had added a cough to the runny nose. I took her in, and as it turns out, she tested positive for strep. Evidently with little ones, it can manifest itself almost like a head cold, and they don't always run fever. The doctor's office policy is to go on and prescribe antibiotics for siblings who are showing any symptoms, and we really figure Mary Joyce has it, too--she has this cast-iron resistance level where she just doesn't get very sick with anything. So, now both girls are on antibiotics for strep, and I'm trying my best not to get it. I have become the queen of hand sanitizer.
Today, I went to the lab to have my bloodwork done from my Monday doctor's appointment. My doctor's office in GA did all of their blood draws, etc., in the office, but this practice sends you to the lab. My arm hurts, but that is done, thankfully. And, once again, Mary Joyce decided not to take a nap this afternoon, and she is already having a very rough night.
Please tell me that next week will be better than this one!
On one cute note, Katherine has learned to wave, and tonight when she was in the tub, she grinned at me, waved, and said, "Hi!"
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Supper With Friends
On Saturday I got a call from our friend Shelley asking if we wanted to meet for supper. Shelley and her husband, David, are parents to Aly and Lili. Lili is the Tonggu girl who lives the closest to us, and she and Mary Joyce are the same age. Anyway, we met at Ruby Tuesday's and enjoyed visiting together. Here are a few pictures:
This picture is SO Mary Joyce. It has her personality written all over it.
Mary Joyce decided to join Aly in her chair after we were through eating.
Sweet Miss Lili
I refer to this one as the "Headlock" pose. This was one of a series of pictures of the 4 girls.
How rare is this? A picture of 4 children, aged 4 and under, and all of them are actually looking at the camera at the same time. :-)
This picture is SO Mary Joyce. It has her personality written all over it.
Mary Joyce decided to join Aly in her chair after we were through eating.
Sweet Miss Lili
I refer to this one as the "Headlock" pose. This was one of a series of pictures of the 4 girls.
How rare is this? A picture of 4 children, aged 4 and under, and all of them are actually looking at the camera at the same time. :-)
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
A Few Pictures
I haven't really taken too many pictures lately, but here are a few recent random photos of the girls:
New Wheels!
We found a van on Friday. It is a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country. So far, we are really enjoying all of the space. We also made sure that Mary Joyce said "Bye Bye" to our old green car and red pick-up, as she doesn't always like major changes. Thankfully, she seems okay with the situation. So, we are now a one-vehicle household. The plan is to get a scooter for Chet to use for his visitation. That is the benefit of living in a small area--he walks to work, and with a scooter, he can get almost everywhere he needs to go for his church-related business.
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