Quilt Fundraiser - We Need Your Help!!!!!

Dear friends and family,

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. These 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains luck, hope, and good thoughts from all the families and friends who contribute a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.

We would like to combine this tradition with raising money for our next adoption.  We want all of you to have a part in creating a quilt that our child will have forever.  He or she will be able to be covered in the love of family and friends.

So this is how we would like to accomplish this:

• Each square will “cost” $10.   For each $10 you donate to our adoption, we want to include 1 square on our child’s quilt.  For example, if you can give $10, choose 1 square.  If you can give $100, choose 10 squares.
• You may choose your own fabric or we will choose for you.  If you choose, we would love it if you chose something meaningful to you. If you’d like us to choose your fabric, just let us know.  We have plenty of fabric!!  We aren't sure yet if we'll be matched with a boy or a girl.
• The fabric can be anything that is machine washable. Any color or pattern is fine.  A piece of an old t-shirt, a piece of something meaningful to you, regular cotton quilting fabric, etc. 
• The piece needs to be a 4-inch square.
• If you would like to enclose a note for our scrapbook, we'd love to include it in the new child's scrapbook. 

We need you to send your fabric and your check directly to us.  We will take progress pictures of our squares periodically so you can see how we’re doing!  If you’d prefer to give anonymously, just send a money order and we’ll make sure to include some fabric squares in the quilt.  If you need our address, email us at wolfeadoption@gmail.com

Our goal is to raise around $10,000 with this quilt.  By our calculations, for a twin-size, the front of the quilt will have approximately 560 squares, so that is $5,600 for the front.  I am more than happy to make a larger quilt if we get enough squares!!!!!

We know this is a difficult time of year to be asking for donations.  We are so grateful for whatever you can contribute.  Every dollar gets us a little closer to being able to bring our child home!!!  We are working on a detailed list of how much everything costs so that everyone can see what goes into an international adoption.  We assure you that every penny that is donated will go directly towards our adoption.  We have a special savings account set up and all adoption money goes directly into that account.

Thank you and we can’t wait to get started on the quilt!  Please let us know if you have any questions!!!!!  Sherry’s email address is:  scbwolfe@gmail.com and Aaron’s is:  aswolfe@gmail.com

Thank you again!

Aaron, Sherry, Luke, Jacinda, and our new little one

Buy Coffee and Help Bring our Child Home!

We are partnering with a great company called Just Love Coffee to help raise money for our next adoption.  For every bag of coffee you buy, they will give us $5 that goes directly towards our adoption expenses.  Go HERE for our store.  Once you get there, you can use the links on the left side of the page to see all the types of coffee they have.

I have tried a couple of different types and they are SO good!!!!!  The coffee would make great Christmas gifts!!!  Feel free to send the link to other friends and family if you'd like.

The company was started specifically to help orphans and their adoptive families.  The coffee is certified Fair Trade, which means that the coffee farmers are paid a sustainable and livable wage.  The coffee is also Organic.

If you have any questions, please let us know!  Any purchases are greatly appreciated.  We're working hard to raise the money for this adoption and would love to have you as a partner in the process.  We have more ideas in the works, so stay tuned!

Dossier and Homestudy

China requires that adoptive parents submit a Dossier, which is a collection of documents.  The documents we have to submit are:

Family Information Form (a snapshot of our family information, such as income, address, number of kids)
Application Letter (a letter we write to the Chinese government requesting to adopt)
Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificate
Employment Verifications
Medical Forms
Police Clearances
Copies of Passports
Photographs showing our home and family
Immigration Approval (we can't apply for this until the Homestudy is done)
Adoption Homestudy

Once we get all of those documents, they each have to be notarized by a notary with at least a year left on their certification.  Then, the documents have to be certified at the state level.  Then, they have to be authenticated at the Chinese Embassy in DC before heading off to China.  Each step requires filling out a form and writing a check (of course!).

The Homestudy involves requesting some documents, like the Birth Certificates and physical forms.  We also have to get documentation that our pets have all their shots.  Then we have to meet with our social worker and she'll ask us a million questions as well as come to our house.  Our house doesn't have to be perfectly clean (if you've been to our house, don't laugh!), but they want to see that we have room for another child.

Right now, we're requesting all the documents and putting together the Dossier, as well as getting started on the Homestudy.  We should be able to reuse some of our Homestudy documents from last time.  We're waiting to hear back from our local social worker as to what we'll need to do to complete the Homestudy.

Once the Homestudy is done, we can apply to US Immigration.  Last time, we had a big holdup with US Immigration.  We got caught in the midst of them changing the process.  We're hoping it won't take nearly as long this time.

Another Adoption Journey Begins ......

Some of you will recall that while we were in China last year, I (Sherry) said that I would never in a million years do another international adoption.  Well, apparently God has a sense of humor!  When we say "never", I think it's an opportunity for God to do a great work in us.

For months, we have been discussing whether or not to do another adoption.  We want more kids, but infertility makes that impossible!  I just turned 38 and I feel like I want to be done having kids soon.  Plus, if we get out of the toddler years, I don't think I want to go back!!!!!  We've been talking, thinking, and praying for a long time.  This past week, we finally both felt like it was the right time.

We submitted our application this past Sunday, which was coincidentally Orphan Sunday.  We definitely didn't plan it that way, but it's cool that it worked out like that!  I'm anxious to get started and get our new family member home!!!!!  We are going back to China.  We are requesting a special needs boy or girl under age 3.  We are hoping that his or her need will be cleft lip/palate again.  That need can have a wide range of severity, but we have a great support system in place here and a great team of doctors.  However, we are open to considering a wide range of minor to moderate special needs.

If you are the praying type, please pray that:
1.  The right child would be matched with us.  There is a lot of work that goes into matching children with families.  We are praying that the right child for our family will find us.
2.  The money we need will be provided.  Adoption is very expensive and we have some money saved up, but not nearly enough.  We have already started changing around our household budget to save as much as we can.  I (Sherry) am trying to pick up more part-time work.  It doesn't make sense for me to go to work full-time because by the time we pay for full-time daycare for both kids, I won't bring home very much money.  I've already applied to another college for an Adjunct teaching position.  I'm also trying to find some tutoring jobs and sewing work for people.  We will also be applying for some adoption grants, but we can't do that until our Homestudy is completed, so about 6 months from now.

More surgeries .......

We've been so busy this summer!  Mostly trying to stay cool.  I think we're all ready for fall around here.  Luke starts preschool right after Labor Day and I think he's going to love it!!!

This coming Monday, Jacinda is having an endoscopy and colonoscopy.  Because of her age, she will need general anesthesia.  The doctor says it should only take about an hour.  She's having it done because she continues to have horrible diarrhea.  All her tests so far have been normal.  Her doc is sure these tests will also be normal.  I sure hope so, but the diarrhea is truly awful.  Everywhere we go, we carry 2 changes of clothes and she often needs it.  So we'll see what happens.

In even bigger news, we're waiting on a phone call with the surgery date for her tongue, nose, and palate.  Back in May, her surgeon, Dr. Inciong, said that he wanted to wait at least 6 months, maybe a year, and then do some more work on her nose.  Her left nostril is tiny and he had opened it up a bit in February, but it had collapsed again.  So he said we should wait a while until she gets bigger and then re-evaluate.

A few months ago, she started having nosebleeds on that side.  They aren't too bad, but just enough to make a mess.  So last week, I called and made an appointment to see Dr. Inciong.

Around the same time last week, I was practicing words with her.  I realized that she wasn't lifting her tongue up to make certain sounds, like "l" and "t".  For a while now, I've been frustrated that she hasn't been making much progress with her speech.  We and her speech therapist have been chalking it up to being 2 and being very stubborn.  But I started wondering if she was "tongue-tied."  None of her doctors or speech therapists had ever mentioned that this was a possibility.

So I asked Dr. Inciong today to take a look, since we were there anyway.  He said she is definitely "tongue-tied".  It's where the little piece of tissue under the tongue is too small and doesn't allow you to lift your tongue up or stick your tongue out.  For some people, it's not severe and they are able to compensate.  For Jacinda, it's definitely interfering with her speech, so Dr. Inciong says we should take care of it immediately.  Unfortunately, because of her age, we're looking at general anesthesia again.

He said that while he's in there, he'll take a look at her nose and very possibly go ahead and try to make that left nostril larger again.  He thinks the insides of her nostril are touching and "sticking" together and that's what's causing the nosebleeds.  He also will take a look at her palate and make sure there are no holes in it.

Hopefully this surgery will be soon!  I'm expecting the nurse to call either tomorrow or early next week.

2010 Family Vacation

We just got back from our vacation to PA.  I had meant to blog along the way, but we were so busy.  So this entry will be long!  Pictures will come soon!

Friday, June 25 - We left early to head up to Aaron's family reunion in NE Pennsylvania.  It's an 8 hour drive and the kids did pretty well for the most part.  They each had a couple of times where they really wanted to get out. We arrived at the campsite around 6 pm.  Our plan was to camp with Aaron's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.  Aaron's family has property, so we camped there.  His aunt and uncle had rented a large tent with a table and chairs and a port-a-potty for the weekend.

Luke slept in his Grammy and Grampy's camper with them and the rest of us slept in the pop-up camper.  Oh, and we also brought our crazy dog with us!  She did really well with all the new people.  Luke caught a cold while we were camping, but he bounced back pretty quickly.  Jacinda did not sleep well at all ..... once she fell asleep, she was fine, though.

Saturday, June 26 - We went to see Aaron's Aunt Diane.  The kids and I had never met her, so that was good.  We also saw his grandma and grandpa.  That evening, we went to his cousin, Lisa's, farm.  We had fun hanging out with all the cousins and kids.  The kids LOVED seeing the horses and the 3 baby cows.  Lisa even let the kids take horse rides!

One of Aaron's cousins has 3 kids, ages 4, 2, and 9 months, so our kiddos had plenty of playmates!

Sunday, June 27 - This was the day everyone was coming to the campsite for the reunion.  We spent the morning getting all the food ready and everyone started coming around lunchtime.  We all had a great time!

The kids spent some time in the river, mostly throwing rocks in the water!

Monday, June 28 - We headed out of the campsite in the morning.  We went to Allentown to have lunch with some friends of ours who had moved up there to start a church.  Some of them had not yet met Jacinda, so it was fun to see them and spend some time talking.

Next up, Philadelphia!  We were actually staying in New Jersey and we arrived at our hotel late in the afternoon.  That night, we spent some time deciding what to do the next day, we cooked spaghetti for dinner, and we went to IKEA!

Tuesday, June 29 - Tuesday was supposed to be the hottest day of the week, so we decided to go to the Adventure Aquarium.  We loved the hippos!  We got to see them up close and they were fascinating!

We cooked burritos at our hotel that night and then went swimming at the hotel pool.  We did some shopping that night to find the kids floaties for the pool, but we were unsuccessful!

Wednesday, June 30 - The weather was gorgeous today!!!!  We went to the zoo and it was HUGE!!!  It made our zoo in Norfolk look like a neighborhood park!  We were SO exhausted by the time we were done.  Plus, I was starting to come down with Luke's cold.

After the zoo, we ate a late lunch at Baja Fresh and finally found the floaties we wanted.  We went back to the hotel and used the new floaties in the pool.  Jacinda freaked OUT this time in the pool.  We think she was just overtired.

We went to a local park that was really nice and then decided to find some dessert.  We ended up eating a quick dinner at A&W and then dessert at Dairy Queen.

Thursday, July 1 - We needed a low-key day, so we slept in and went to the Children's Museum in Fairmount Park.  The kids LOVED playing there.  We ended up staying there for around 5 hours!

Aaron wanted a real Philly cheesesteak, so we picked Tony Luke's since they had other things for the rest of us to eat.  So we get there and they're "out" of everything but cheesesteaks.  Convenient.  Aaron got his cheesesteak and then we went to Chick-fil-A for the rest of us!!!  Aaron did eat his cheesesteak in Chick-fil-A!!!

After that fiasco, we went back to the park for a while.

Friday, July 2 - Our last day in Philly.  We did SO much today!!!!!  First, we went to the US Mint.  It was a bit disappointing because it seemed like they hadn't started operations for the day.  But at least we got to go there.

Then we got on the double decker bus tour and rode it to the Academy of Natural Sciences.  We sat on the top of the bus and the weather was just perfect!!!  The ANS was fun.  We saw dinosaurs, or as Luke says, "They're actually just dinosaur bones, not real dinosaurs.", real butterflies, and the kids got to touch a few live animals (rat, hissing cockroach).

Then we went across the street to the Franklin Institute, which is a science museum.  Most of the stuff there was too advanced for our kiddos, but they had fun.

Then we rode the trolley back to the start and walked over to see the Liberty Bell.  We didn't stand in the huge, long line to go inside and see it.  We found a window, stood on our tiptoes, and saw it just fine!

By then we were exhausted!!!  We drove back to our hotel for a little downtime.  Then we went to dinner at a great Italian place my friend has told us about.

Saturday, July 3 - We drove to Annapolis, MD and met our friends for lunch at Chevy's.  We always have to get a Chevy's fix when we are anywhere near one! 

Then we drove home.  Even though it is a 4 hour trip, we can never make it in anywhere close to 4 hours.  This time, it was close to 6 hours.  We got off 295 onto 64 Eastbound in Richmond and traffic was just stopped.  It was still over 60 miles home, and I cannot sit in traffic for that long.  So we used our GPS to figure out another way home.  It still took a while, but at least we were driving and not sitting.  During that drive, we came up with our plan for our next few family vacations .... we'll share it when we figure it out a little more.  It was SOOOOO nice to be home!!!!!

Pictures coming soon!

Jacinda's Appointments Today

Today, we went to CHKD to see Jacinda's craniofacial team of doctors.  We got mostly good news.  Here's a rundown of what happened ....

1.  First we saw an orthodontist.  He thought Jacinda's teeth looked great.  He said she won't need any orthodontic or surgical work done until she gets her permanent molars, which is around age 6-7.  He recommended we start taking her to a pediatric dentist.  He said that she will be spending a lot of time in a dentist's chair in her life, so we might as well get her used to it now.  Fortunately, the dentist he recommended IS covered by our insurance!

2.  Next, she saw an ENT.  He cleaned all the wax out of her ears.  We've had several doctors tell us she has tons of wax, but no one has wanted to attempt to get it out!  We held her down and she actually did really well!  After that, the ENT looked in her ears and said there was NO fluid.  Zero.  For a cleft kid, that's amazing news!!!  This means no ear tubes!!!!!!!  Structurally, he thought everything looked great .... ears, nose, mouth.  He was glad to hear that she will have another hearing test next month.  He told us to please call him if we had more questions, or if she needed the wax cleaned out again.

3.  Next up, her surgeon.  He thought her palate looked great.  She does have 2 teeth coming in in the roof of her mouth.  It's kind of strange, but totally normal for a cleft kid.  He thinks one of them might start to cause problems, so he thought the pediatric dentist idea was definitely a good one.  The other issue we talked about with him was Jacinda's nose.  Her left nostril is very small.  During her palate surgery, he did try to make it a little larger.  He had warned us beforehand it would be difficult.  He said it's harder to make something bigger than smaller.  Right after surgery, it looked great.  Now, it's collapsed back down at least to where it was before.  The problem is that whenever she has a runny nose (which is often), that nostril gets crusted shut!  He wants to wait at least 6 months to a year before even thinking about another surgery on it.  Even then, he's not sure if we should do it.  So we'll reevaluate sometime next year.

4.  Finally, the speech pathologist (SP).  This is where we had probably the biggest concerns.  With just a brief observation, the SP put Jacinda at about the level of a 16 month old as far as expressive language (this is what you can say or express) goes.  Her receptive language (this is what you understand) was much closer to her actual age.  So the SP was concerned that there was such a large gap.  She was impressed that Jacinda has improved so much in the 7 months she's been home.  Basically, she thinks that our current speech therapist has done a good job, but now it's time to get aggressive.  The SP thinks Jacinda would benefit from speech therapy done in an office setting rather than here at our home.  So we got a referral to their speech therapy department.

So here's our To-Do list we took home:

1.  Call our insurance to find out how we can switch speech therapists.  Our insurance makes this very complicated, of course.  Right now her therapy is done through the Virginia Beach school system.  Our insurance has no "in-network" speech therapists in our area.  So that will be a loooong phone call!!!
2.  Once we figure that out, make an appointment with the new speech therapy office.
3.  Call Jacinda's pediatrician and get an appointment to get her evaluated for allergies.  We had hoped her constant runny nose would get better after her palate surgery.  It hasn't.
4.  Call the pediatric dentist.

In Case You Don't Believe Me ......

In case you don't believe me that Jacinda is a handful, here's a story to start out your week!  Luke was watching a movie on our desktop computer and Jacinda was sitting next to him in a different chair.  They appeared to be fine, so I left the room.  (Big mistake).

A few minutes later, I hear a huge crash.  I ran into the family room and see Jacinda laying on the floor and the TV laying on the floor next to her.  Luke is calmly watching his movie on the computer.  Somehow, Jacinda managed to pull the TV off the little table it sits on.  I don't know why or how.  She is fine.  At least it was a crappy TV ... not sure if it will survive or not.  I think it bounced off the fireplace and landed on the floor.

I asked Luke why he didn't tell her to stop or why he didn't call me to come get her.  (He tattles on her for everything else!)  He said he didn't know.  *sigh*

Happy Monday, everyone!!!

Monkey Adventures - Jacinda's Antics

Before 9 am today, this is what Jacinda has accomplished .....

- Falling off our bed. I think she was "hugging" the cat and the cat jumped down, so Jacinda fell off. Onto her head. Of course.
- Dumping milk all over her and Luke's little couches. (I'm sure that wasn't grammatically correct. Sue me.)

This girl keeps me running. Sheesh. It's really just funny at this point!

Jacinda's Follow-Up Appointment

We saw Jacinda's surgeon today. He was VERY impressed with how well her palate is healing after only 2 weeks. He saw NO signs of a fistula (which, as I understand it, is a place where the palate opens back up). He wants to see her back in 6 weeks and then he wants the entire craniofacial team to see her in 6 months. At that point, we'll evaluate how she's doing and see where to go from there. At this point, he thinks she will not need another surgery for several years!!!!!! Although, he did say that he wants to keep an eye on how her nose heals and if the left nostril collapses back down, he might want to try to fix that.

The best news he gave us was that we can start giving her crunchy foods to eat again! He told us to not go crazy .... give her things slowly and see how it goes. He also said we can start introducing a straw in another week.

Her speech therapist thinks that once we can teach her to use a straw, her speech will greatly improve. She learns new words every week. The words we can understand are: mama, moon, uh-oh, and night-night. She also is using a lot of signs: eat, drink, potty, help, hurt, kitty, and more.

So things are going really well!!!!!!

Monkey Adventures - Luke's Pineapple

Luke has always had an interesting relationship with food. It's either all or nothing with him. He must be getting ready to grow, because he's eating us out of house and home at the moment! (Luke, please don't get any taller until it's warmer outside! Your pants are already too short!!!!!)

He's been on a fruit kick lately ..... There are definitely worse things, I suppose! Over the weekend, he ate an entire cantaloupe in 2 days. Yesterday and today, he ate an entire pint of blueberries! At the grocery store on Sunday, he saw whole pineapples and asked if we could get one. I said no, that we had lots of fruit at home.

Last night, all 4 of us went to BJ's. Luke saw pineapples again, and asked for one. I said we would get one soon. Well, for the next 20 minutes that we were shopping, he kept asking for a pineapple. He wasn't throwing a fit about it, he was asking nicely. So a pineapple came home with us. I suspect it won't last long around here!!!!

I find it funny that some kids bug their parents for candy or toys when they are shopping. Luke bugs us for fruit!!!!!! I love that kid!

Sunday Update - Jacinda

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Jacinda is in no shape to be out celebrating, so I'm home with the maniacs and thought I'd post while they're wrestling with each other!!!!

We think Jacinda has a cold. She is miserable, which is making the rest of us miserable. Her nose is a faucet, and every time I wipe it, she cries. She didn't sleep much last night. I'm not sure if that's because she couldn't breathe so well or what. I think the Tylenol with Codeine is disrupting her sleep. When she wakes up, she just cries and cries. So 2 strikes on the sleeping situation. Tonight, I think we'll try going with regular Tylenol and see if that helps at all.

Food - Poor girl is SO hungry. She just cries and cries. Today we graduated to scrambled eggs and she enjoyed that! At dinner tonight, she managed to spill her cantaloupe/yogurt smoothie all over the carpet and the cat. Poor kitty. He's going to smell like cantaloupe for a while because I am NOT giving a 25 pound cat a bath. Forget it!!!!! Jacinda is apparently a champion spiller .... there was yogurt 10 feet away in several directions!!!!!

Liquid/Soft Food Diet

So Jacinda is on a liquid/soft food diet for 2-3 weeks. This girl is miserable. She eats more than we do!!! Here's what I've come up with that she can eat.

Yogurt
Jello
Pudding
Smoothies - yogurt, milk, fruit - I may even try to sneak in some wheat germ for some extra protein and other good stuff.
Mashed Potatoes
Baby Food
Carnation Instant Breakfast
Ice Cream
Applesauce - plain and with cinnamon
Pureed veggies
Noodles (probably in another few days)

I'm trying to give her things that are healthy, but that she'll actually enjoy. If you have any ideas, let me know!

We're HOME!!!!!

We are home and doing well so far ......

Wednesday - We arrived at the hospital at 10 am and surgery was scheduled to start at noon. We got checked in and they actually got started a little early. I (Sherry) had a hard time when we left her. She was crying and reached out for me when I handed her to the nurse. They promised us they'd have her to sleep in under a minute. Later, the nurse that took her from me told me that Jacinda had stopped crying as soon as we walked away. And that she went to sleep just fine. They placed the IV AFTER she was asleep!!!! I was so thankful for that because her last blood draw did not go well. She had several needle marks on her hands and feet, so it looked like they had tried a few different spots. They finally got it in her ankle.

We settled into the waiting room and the surgery was supposed to take around 3 hours. The nurse that took her from us called us each hour with an update. The surgery took just under 3 hours. We went back to the recovery area and she was already awake. Apparently, as soon as she woke up, she decided she was too hot and peeled off her shirt and tossed it on the ground!!! That's our girl!!!!!

She had a hard time waking up and was in a lot of pain. We gave her some juice ..... and some morphine!!!! She went back to sleep and we went up to her room. She ended up sleeping most of the afternoon. She'd wake up and be really upset, so she got alternating doses of Tylenol w/ Codeine and Morphine until just after midnight. She slept great last night and didn't need any meds after that midnight dose!

Thursday - I stayed the night in the room with Jacinda. The bed was pretty comfy, but I didn't sleep that great because of all the noise .... voices in the hall, beeping in everyone's rooms, the noises of Jacinda's monitors. We both woke up around 7:30 this morning. She had some clear liquid breakfast! She is NOT happy with the clear liquid situation, let me tell you!!!!!!

After breakfast, she took a little nap. Once Aaron came back, we put Jacinda in a wagon and we took a walk around the halls. Eventually, we stopped at the playroom. She perked right up and played with some blocks, then went over to the play kitchen and made us some lunch!!!!

Finally, the surgeon came to see her around 12:30. During surgery, he had put a gauze packing in the roof of her mouth. He took that out and she was NOT happy about that!!!! He told us we could go home!!!!!

We waited around a little while so she could get one more dose of pain meds. She was pretty unhappy during that time because of the packing removal and being tired. We made it home and she's napping now.

She has to be on a liquid and soft food diet for 2-3 weeks. Oh.My.Goodness. She is going to HATE us!!!!!! The hardest part will be trying not to eat in front of her!

Jacinda's surgery update

Surgery was today and it went very well. She has been sleeping a lot due to the pain meds but when she wakes up she is pretty upset. Hopefully we will get to come home on Thursday. Thanks for all of the prayers.

A Snowy Update on Jacinda

We're still snowed in here! We're loving the snow, but not the ice. I (Sherry) drove Aaron to his brother's house this morning and the ice on the roads was pretty bad. The kids and I made it home just fine, but I'm perfectly happy to not drive again the rest of the day! (Aaron went to his brother's house to borrow a car .... Aaron's car has a flat tire and all 4 tires are really bad, so he is not driving it in this weather. His brother is a mechanic and is ordering new tires today.)

Jacinda's surgery is still on for this Wednesday, 2/3. We're not sure yet what time ... we'll find out tomorrow. I'm not really worried about the actual surgery. We have some of the best cleft surgeons in this country operation on her! I'm most concerned about the anesthesia part of the whole thing. I have heard that little kids sometimes have a hard time coming out of it.

Dr. Inchon, the plastic surgeon, will repair her palate and touch up her lip and nose a little. He said she will still have a hole in her gumline and that her nose would be the hardest part of the surgery. During the surgery, an ENT surgeon will take a look at her ears and place tubes if she needs them. We're fairly certain she will. She had a hearing test a few weeks ago and it showed that she has fluid in both ears.

We are very fortunate that Aaron's parents have graciously agreed to keep Luke and the dog for a couple of days for us. That way, we can focus on Jacinda and Luke can have fun!!!

Specific things you can pray for .....
1. That Dr. Inchon will be able to accomplish all he intends to so we can minimize the number of surgeries she will need.
2. That I will not have a panic attack! I'm serious about that .... I've had a few of them in recent history.
3. That Luke will not worry if we're coming back to get him. It turns out that when he stayed at Aaron's parents house while we were in China, he was worried that we weren't coming back to get him.
4. That Jacinda's pain will be kept under control.

An Update on Mr. Luke

I thought I'd write an update on Luke for once! He had his appointment with the cardiologist yesterday. The heart murmur is still there, but the cardiologist is not concerned. He said Luke has no restrictions and does not have to take antibiotics before dental work. He wants to see Luke in 2 years when they will do an echo test to look at the VSD again. The doctor is not concerned at all and said that even if the VSD never closes, Luke will lead a perfectly normal life. So that was great news!!!

We are also researching preschools for Luke for next school year. We would like him to go 3 mornings a week. We think it will be good for him to have something to do that is just for him. We went to storytime today at the library and he had so much fun. He listened to the stories and played the games! He even sung one of the songs in the car on the way home. So we really think preschool will be great for him.

Monkey Adventures - "Uh-Oh"

Today when we were in the doctor's office, Luke and Jacinda were across the room while I was paying. All of a sudden I heard someone say, "Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh." It sounded suspiciously like Jacinda ..... which is odd because the only word she's said up to now was Mama.

Sure enough, Jacinda now has 2 words .... Mama and Uh oh! I was very excited .... but then I realized she probably picked it up because we're always saying Uh oh when she destroys something!!!

This afternoon, somehow, she managed to get mud all over her ...... and she had been inside the whole time!!! I think it came from the dog, although I didn't see it actually happen.

Monkey Adventures

It has come to my attention that several of our friends find our life wildly entertaining. So, in order to keep them laughing, here are some random stories about our crazy little monkeys.

- A few days ago, Luke was watching TV in the family room, I was watching TV in the living room, and Jacinda was bouncing around all over the place. Luke comes into the living room, sighs, and says, "Mommy, Jacinda went outside with no pants on." She likes to open and close the sliding door that opens onto the deck. She was wearing a shirt and a diaper, but no pants. I left the door unlocked, and sure enough, she was standing on the deck with no pants on!!!!!

- I told Luke that he needed to stop growing because his pants were getting too short and I didn't want to buy new ones. He said, "But I HAVE to keep growing." I asked why and he said, "So I can reach things."

- Last night, Jacinda fell off the couch onto a puzzle, and landed on her face. She didn't have a single mark on her face!!! Then at church this morning, she ends up with a nasty scrape on her face and no one knows how it happened!!!!! She's going to end up in the ER one of these days.

These 2 monkeys definitely keep us laughing and we LOVE it!!!! There's always something crazy going on around here!!!!!

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On a more serious note .... Jacinda's palate surgery is still on for February 3rd. She has a hearing test this Wednesday. Everyone (her pediatrician, her speech therapist, and us) think her hearing is fine. It's just something that a lot of cleft kids have issues with, so her pediatrician thought it was a good idea to at least get a baseline before her surgery. Her pediatrician's office pulled some strings and called in a few favors to get us in this quickly!

Luke has a follow-up appointment the week of January 25th with a cardiologist. He has a tiny heart murmur that was diagnosed when he was a day old. It has never caused any problems and still isn't. He saw a cardiologist when he turned 1 and he had several tests on his heart and the doctors were not concerned. His pediatrician would just like us to have a follow-up.

I (Sherry) have several medical appointments over the next few weeks. I'm seeing a new ENT doctor this coming week for some help with my allergies and sinuses. I have a root canal scheduled for the 27th of January. The dentist that's doing the root canal is kind of wacky, so I'll have to write a post about that later!

That's about it from here ...... just pure chaos!!!!!!

Jacinda's Birthday is Tomorrow .... Bittersweet

So Jacinda's 2nd birthday is tomorrow. It's great ... we've been home from China with her since the end of October. There was a time when we weren't sure if she'd be home before her birthday. So we're really excited that she's home and doing so well.

But. I can't help but think about her first mom. Was she excited to be having a baby? How did she feel when the baby was a girl AND had a cleft lip and palate? Did she immediately know that they would give up the baby? How did it feel to leave the baby outside, in front of an orphanage? I'm so glad DD was left somewhere that she'd be found quickly. She was dressed in a coat and wrapped up in blankets. Obviously, someone took good care of her.

How does Jacinda's first mom feel every day, but especially on her birthday? I'm so sad that DD's first mom will never be able to see her grow up, or see her sweet, crooked smile, or get kisses from her. But on the other hand, we get to experience all of that. It's such a strange, bittersweet feeling.

I haven't thought much about Jacinda's first mom until now. I can't imagine leaving my baby and never knowing what happened to her. I am so grateful that God thought we were the right parents for this precious, sweet little girl.

Speech Therapy

Jacinda finally started speech therapy this past Monday. It was WONDERFUL! Her therapist's name is Allison and she was just amazing. Jacinda really warmed up to her quickly .... probably because Allison brought lots of puzzles and toys with her!

Allison was very impressed at all the noises Jacinda is already making. She thinks that once Jacinda's palate is repaired, she'll be talking in no time! Allison also said that Luke talks VERY well for a 3 year old, and that having him as a model will really help Jacinda.

We learned a few more signs, which Jacinda already had mastered by the end of the hour. We learned help and down. Our speech pathologist on the craniofacial team really wants us to limit the signs we use because she doesn't want Jacinda to rely on the signs once her palate is repaired. She wants her to talk. Allison said she understood that and the way to avoid it is for us to use the sounds with the signs.

Allison showed me some ways to help Jacinda make sounds, even if she can't say the actual word. For example, when putting an elephant in the puzzle, I should say, "Jacinda, say eh-eh-elephant". And she says the eh sound just fine and puts the piece in the puzzle!!!

Allison will come once a week for an hour for now. Once Jacinda makes progress, we'll re-evaluate.

This will sound crazy, but I'm actually looking forward to her palate repair surgery! I'm ready to get that over with and move on! I can't wait until Jacinda can talk!!!!! And drink from a sippy or straw cup that doesn't leak!!!!!!!!!!