Visit with the Doctor

Today was Sydney's first visit with our pediatrician. Sydney was great during the visit (& really all day!). She went right to our pedi--mainly because he was holding his laptop. And she is all into pushing buttons on it! (sidenote--our house was not as "toddler-proofed" as we thought!) Sydney is in the 71 percentile in weight and 27.55 in height (yes the .55 matters!). That is on the US charts! So we were so excited! Honestly, we did not think she would be on our charts. Especially since Sydney is a preemie and considered special needs. So yeah!! Sydney has only gained 1/2 pound since we left China (total 1 1/2 pounds). I think this was mentioned before but Sydney's eating has really slowed down. But when you gorge yourself--you pretty much slow down. Our pedi is curious to see how much she grows height wise in a year. He has read studies recently how China is lacking protein big time in their diet. So we are supposed to push protein in her diet. And also yogurt type foods for parasites and other stuff.
Which brings me to the stool sample. Ugh. Seriously. I have to get a stool sample from a 3 year old. Suggestions would be great. We tried in the office,but since Sydney only used a "squatty" for the first 3 years, it did not happen. Lets just say that the "catcher" is in the wrong place for her. So we will try at home. Good times?? The sweet nurse said we can just put it in the frig because they will not be open til Monday. Ok yuck. PJ said we could just put it out with the deer meat. Yuck again!
Her "special need" is not there. Nowhere to be found.
PJ & I also took her for blood work today. Really sad. Sydney did not cry at all. I was a little teary myself. She is a trooper. The sweet ladies in the office were so concerned with finding a good vein (without scar tissue??) and not bruising her. I wondered what Sydney thought about the tests & the people involved today. I'm sure she thought --why are they being so nice to me?? Which just breaks our hearts to think about what she has been through.
We will have several appointments after the first of the year. Sydney will go to a pediatric eye doctor for her eye injury and also a physical therapist. We go back to our pedi in one month to just check on how Sydney is doing & go over her blood work and other tests.
No shots today. Thank goodness. But we do have several before our 4 year old check up. I'm still pretty p**sy at our government over the whole shot thing. Why did Sydney need to get those shots? It is ridiculous. Sydney was basically given the 1st round of MMR (should of been started at 12-18 months), 1st round of Hib (should of been given at 2 months!!), 1st round of Hepatitis B (1-3 months) and Chicken pox (12-18 months) on the 11th of December--when we were in China. Why can we not wait to immunize our kids til we get home? This is ridiculous. I want this changed for future children & their families. Enough of my venting FOR NOW.
Overall--Sydney is doing great. We have been blessed with wonderful people who truly care for our children.

As I look back to this time last year, I'm shocked at how our lives have changed. We were not
even logged in yet in China. God has blessed our entire family. I'm still without words that God has given us this sweet outgoing little girl. Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us! Happy New Year to all of our dear friends & family! Love all of you.

Does It Feel Normal Yet?

We get this question a lot! Sydney is doing great. She is no longer gorging herself like she was in China. Once the kids get up from the table, she is done with eating. So, they are hanging out awhile after eating. Philip & Ashlyn have been wonderful with their little sister. Both of them always want to be touching her or talking to her.
Ashlyn has had a few tears over the last couple of days but we think that is normal. She was the baby, the only girl, had her own room for over 6 years, and the list goes on and on! But overall, Ashlyn is doing great with adjusting.
Sydney's English is coming along. We are really working on Sydney saying those words. Not pushing her--it will just help us communicate more effectively with her. She can probably say 20 ish words and some phrases. We are thinking what language development special need?
Sydney is a great helper! She wants to carry dirty clothes to the laundry room (you should of seen the big kids faces the 1st time!!), get the dry clothes out, carry her dishes to the table & she LOVES the vacuum!
Sleeptime is a problem or more like falling asleep (bs/she sleeps almost all night). Sydney cries, screams, throws fits during naptime & bedtime. We were on our last "whatever" yesterday. Sorry--I try to be honest on this blog. This has been the hardest thing so far. But tonight--sweet big sister decided to lay down at the same time. You would not believe the difference. Sydney still threw everything off the bed except for her blanket. But she covered her head up and fell asleep. No fits, no screams & barely any crying. Ashlyn stayed in there for maybe 5 minutes. Big relief for us. Not sure what will happen tomorrow at naptime?? But at least tonight was better. I would love feedback or suggestions or anything. I know this is temporary. And know Sydney has been through A LOT!
Sydney has her first doctor appointment on Thursday. We are curious to see if she has gained any weight since China. And also to see what her "special need" really is??? If it is anything but we are not seeing it.
So to the question of normal. We are not at normal yet. But we are getting closer every day!

Christmas 2009

We had several days of celebrating Christmas with family. It was a wonderful time! Sydney was not sure about the presents. She pretty much opened the first one & then just played with it for awhile. Philip & Ashlyn are adjusting well with a new sister.
All of us have mainly been hanging out in front of the fire because we have snow! It was actually a white Christmas this year. Sydney did not seem impressed with the snow. She looked out the window and then went on with her day.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas weekend!

Thank You Sheri, Dave & Riley

Adjusting

We are slowly adjusting back to normal. Jet lag gets better every day (little by little). Sydney had two really rough nights of sleep or should I say we had two rough nights of sleep! But last night she slept from midnight to 8am straight through with no crying or fits. We were very happy!
The kids & I ventured out to the park yesterday. It was wonderful to get out in the sun for awhile. Sydney loved the park! She climbed on everything and went down the big slide with Philip behind her. I would love to know what is going on in her head!
We still have not completely unpacked or finished with all of the laundry from the trip. That is my goal for today & tomorrow. Especially since Christmas Eve is at our house!
My pictures are on the left for some reason. I guess I did not check my settings or something. Oh well!

My cuties! Ashlyn was really excited about her Chinese dress.

Kids being silly on the floor! Philip & Ashlyn did not plan

the brown shirts. Too bad Sydney did not have brown on!

My favorite two & three year olds! Ava (my sweet niece) &

Sydney playing with a tea set (Sydney's 1st Christmas present
to open). They are so cute together! Ava can really help Sydney

with her English. BTW--Sydney has already picked up several

words. I'm not bragging!

Home!

We are home! Family and friends greeted us at the airport. We have no pictures to post right now (but hopefully soon!). The kids look like they have grown a ton while we were gone. They thought that was funny because it was only two weeks. It feels good to be home with family, breath clean air, shower with non-smelling water and eat yummy Mexican food.
The four flights were difficult with a 3 year old that does not want to be seat belted. The 3rd one (11 hours) was actually the best--Sydney slept for almost 7 hours. PJ & I did not sleep that much. Hoping we can catch up this weekend. Jetlag is bad bad. It does weird things with your body.
Thank you to everyone that helped out during these 2 weeks. Thank you so much to the grandparents & greats, aunts & uncles, friends, teachers--everyone! We could not have done this without you guys.
All of the kids had great days today. Philip & Ashlyn are having a hard time with being "normal" but that will come. We told them to just do what they would normally on a Saturday morning. They both LOVE their little sister. Ashlyn cries when Sydney cries. Philip tries to make Sydney happy with anything he can think of. Sydney loves Stella (our fatty four legged lab). And of course, Stella is always happy to have someone rub on her.
I'll try to post a picture of the kids together tomorrow. We were bad picture taking parents today. Sorry!

Last Post from China

Today is our last full day in China. We have not really done much except pack. Amazing how you can have all of your stuff in three bags & then two weeks later you are wondering where all of this "stuff" is going to fit. We did bring an extra duffel bag for shopping.

Sydney had her first experience with Play-Doh today. She loved it! It held her attention for over an hour. Yes--she sat still for over an hour! She just rolled it all out, talked to it and then combined all the colors together. I'm thinking Ashlyn & Sydney will have different bags of Play-Doh when we get home! Ashers might not like the combining of all of the colors.

PJ will head to the consulate in a little bit to pick up Sydney's documents to enter the country.

This is just to clarify from some emails/comments we received about the last post--we did not actually wait two years from Sydney's referral to Gotcha Day. It took us 2 years (or more like 22 months) from deciding to adopt until Gotcha Day (includes deciding on country, agency, paperchase, referral, approvals, etc). I did not want to scare people about the waiting time. Sorry if that was confusing.

We are excited to come home and see everyone. Our plane lands around 6:30pm. Please remember that Sydney is most likely going to be overwhelmed with flying and Texas in general so please do not have any expectations of how she will react to you or even to PJ & me or the kids. All of this is new to Sydney and we need to give her space to adjust.

Can't wait for you guys to see her. She is a little cutie!

Almost Homebound

Today we went to the US Consulate & took our oath with Sydney. When she enters Dallas (our first US port), she will be a US citizen. It is really just a formality--kids are crying, families are packed into a room & you can barely hear what the guy is saying. Even though the room was a little chaotic, I was a little teary. After two years of this process, Sydney is finally coming home.

I know I keep saying this BUT we are truly blessed with Sydney. And if you have ever thought about adopting--DO IT! No matter what you go through to get you there--DO IT! Tomorrow one of us will go back & pick up Sydney's papers that will allow us to enter the country. Yeah!

We took our travel group pictures today. This is not the entire group. The guides (who we love!) split us up into two groups. Several of the children & family wore their Chinese outfits. Everyone looked great! Sydney was so proud to wear hers. We then headed over to the White Swan to take the "red couch" picture below. Sydney was ready for a nap by then. And was not real cooperative with the photo shoot!

Sydney seems to be having better days. Thank you so much for the comments & emails. Several of our travel group friends are leaving in the morning. Please pray for their safe travels.

We leave here on Friday with the other over 2 year old families. Our flight leaves Guangzhou to Shanghai at 8am. We then fly to Tokyo and then onto Dallas and then home. Super long flight but we are so ready to get home!

Rough Day

So yesterday was a rough day with Sydney. Our China schedule was all different with the early TB test & then staying on the island to shop. At least that is what we are hoping it was. She did NOT want to ride in the stroller or have PJ carry her or have me carry her. Sydney is trying to see what she can get away with & then when we tell her no, she rolls around on the floor & kinda cries.

Her "fits" are pretty comical because they are not dramatic at all. She obviously has not seen the other two fits throwers in the family (both start with A!). Sydney hit a few times yesterday & I think she might have bit PJ too. It is just difficult (like all adoptive families know)--we have no idea what went on before we got Sydney. And she has been through a lot--17 days ago went to the orphanage where she was obviously beaten up and then having only been with us for 7 days. And we are really missing Philip & Ashlyn and home. We are all just emotional right now!





Sydney did have a great time at the "park" on the island. A lot of adoptive families and Chinese families were playing. Sydney seems to love other children. Yeah! She just watches them & then wants to play with them. Or if they are younger, she wants to be their mommy. Interesting. Wondering if she was around babies.

Our guides will go to our consulate appointment today. So we will stay in the room this morning after breakfast. Hoping we have no problems with paperwork. And then maybe we will play with Sydney's new friends here in the hotel or walk to one of the parks. We are just hoping for a great day!

Negative!

Sydney's TB test was negative! Yeah. We stayed on the island & did a little shopping. The stores did not open til around 9amish, so we hung out in Starbucks for awhile. Sydney tried PJ's hot chocolate & loved it!

Sydney is starting to not shut down as much when we are out in the shops. She was talking in one of them. And the sales lady told me she was wondering where her daddy was? How cute is that! Too bad the sales lady can not come home with us for awhile & translate.

Sydney seems to have realized that we will continue to feed her all the time--no matter what time of day it is. This girl can eat! She seems to always be hungry. We really enjoyed hanging out with just her today. Everyone in the shops are super friendly.

We are missing home & our kids! I'm craving a bean burrito with sour cream from Taco Villa. PJ is craving a Sonic coke. No idea what Sydney is craving!

I almost forgot--today is Sydney's 1 week anniversary with us. Wow. Hard to remember our lives before her. Sydney Hope is such a beautiful little girl. She has a smile that is almost too big for her face. Love it!