End of the year musings...

Happy almost 2009 from Karis and Olivia! It was my father who kept saying at the beginning and during the middle of 2008, "it's going to happen this year (meaning the adoption), it's going to happen this year". After already waiting for 3 years and the slow movement in the world of adoption, I had no hopes for a little girl in 2008. I was looking at 2009 and beyond. When will I learn to "trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean NOT on my own understanding"?! Thank you to all who prayed diligently over the years for this little girl to arrive.



Arrive she did....and with a BANG! Each day she does something new and amazing. The other night towards the end of our meal, she decided to see if she could eat with her eyes closed. By jove, she could! The adults at the table were busting a gut as she shoveled food into her mouth while keeping her eyes squinted closed and a big smile on her face.






Christmas was pretty lively around the Day household this year. Most of the presents under the tree were for Miss Olivia, but wouldn't you know, she was more interested in playing with pots and pans in the kitchen then opening presents? One of her favorite new toys quickly became a box that one of her new toys came in. Now I know...all I need to make my little girl happy is boxes, paper and a few pots and pans.














The Sunday after Christmas was a very special occasion for us. Olivia was baptized by her grandpa (who also baptized me and my brother as infants). Olivia was blessed with the gift of a beautiful dress, sewn for her by a very special lady in our lives (thank you Trudy!). She also got her very first whole piece of cake!










So wow....it still doesn't seem quite real to me. But it is, it really is. Something that surprised me after becoming a mom is that I became a little more lonely without a spouse. My first thought was, "why would I be more lonely NOW?" I quickly came to realize that the lonliness had nothing to do with wanting someone else around to help me out. It had to do with the fact that I was now the proud mom of a beautiful little girl. One who is constantly doing amazing things and I constantly find myself wanting to say to someone, "guess what she just did!" or "look how beautiful she is today!". And then I realized that even though she doesn't have a daddy, and I don't have a spouse to say those things to, I have a family and friends that love her as much as I do, who want to hear about all the new things she's doing. So I know I say it alot...but THANK YOU. Thank you for falling in love with my daughter.



On that note...Happy New Year!

I'm redecorating...

Olivia here.

I thought it was about time I got a few words in. I really like my new home, and my new mom but I'm not so sure about the wallpaper border she put in my room. So I thought up a great plan...my mom thinks I'm napping but what I'm really doing is peeling that wallpaper off, piece by piece. I think it's a pretty good plan and my mom doesn't seem to have caught on yet.



I'm also learning lots of new things since coming to America. My Auntie Tine taught me how to "give five". My Auntie Cindy taught me how to wave "bye bye" and my mom taught me how to do thumbs up. She's also trying to teach me how to blow kisses but I don't really understand why you'd blow a kiss? I need to understand the rationale before I do the act! Oh yeah, and my friend Taylan taught me how to close doors!

I LOVE the food here. Especially chocolate cake (thank you Grandpa) and stawberry pound cake (Thank you auntie Luanne). Actually I love all the food here, I'm not too picky.

My mom told me they have to do another surgery to help fix my mouth. My surgery is scheduled for January 19th and I guess I won't be able to eat for a little while but my mom told me she'll give me lots of good stuff to drink. I like to drink almost as much as I like to eat.

I'll write more soon (I also really like the computer, I'm trying to get my mom to let me have my own facebook page but it looks like I'll need to do a little more convincing).

Bye Bye!

Doctors reports

Ok, so I tried the "mommy - daughter" self-portrait thing and it didn't work out so well, I'll keep trying...




We got good news today! Olivia's pediatrician called to let us know that all of Olivia's blood work came back normal! Whoohoo! She is a healthy little girl. With all of the smiles and laughter that come out of this little one, I kind of suspected she was!

We also saw the cleft surgeon this afternoon. He took a one second peek inside her mouth and said, "yep, let's schedule her for surgery!" He said the cleft palate is pretty wide and would like to do surgery soon. He also said there is about an 80% chance that the first surgery will be "unsuccessful". When I asked him what he meant by that, he said there is a risk that her speech will not be normal. If the first surgery is unsuccessful, they follow-up with a second palate surgery in about 6 months. He also said the surgeon in China did a pretty bad job correcting her cleft lip. He said he could try to do some reconstructive surgery on her face but wouldn't recommmend surgery until she was about 4 years old. I think she's absolutely beautiful now....so what if her nose is a little crooked!!

We see an ENT on Friday morning. They'll determine at that time if she also needs tubes put in her ears (a pretty common procedure with cleft kids). If she does need tubes, they'll be able to do this at the same time her palate is repaired.

After our visit with the surgeon, they gave us a tour of the unit she'll be staying on. She'll only be in the hospital one night, and I can stay with her.

After leaving the hospital, I got pretty teary! She's such a happy girl and is adjusting so well to her new life, the thought of putting her through surgery right now (or any time) breaks my heart. I know there are many moms and dads out there who have been through surgery and illness with their kids. Any advice you have would be most welcome.

Thanks again for following along with us. I'll leave you with a couple of prayer requests....and I thank you for keeping "little O" in your prayers:

1. Please pray that Olivia's first palate surgery will be completely successful and that she will NOT need the second surgery 6 months later.
2. We'd also appreciate prayer on the timing of this first surgery. If I had my way, I'd postpone it forever. They are talking about either December or January. There are pros and cons to both months.

Thank you!
Karis

Finally, a good nights sleep!

I've had a few requests to keep the blog updated and I thought it was a great idea as we would so appreciate continued prayer!

We've been home almost a week now! I would say the hardest part about the past few days is that we've both been on China time. Sleepy during the day and wide awake at night! Thankfully, I think jet lag is starting to come to a close. Last night we both slept really well. Not sure if we've completely rounded the corner, but I'm praying it is so!!

Yesterday, Olivia got to meet her wonderful pediatrician. She was there for about an hour and a half and did really well! Her biggest problem were her ears. Lots of hard, yucky gook (that's a medical term I think I learned back in nursing school) in both her ears. She did not like the big metal thingy the doctor used to get it out. She's got some fluid in her ears (not surprising with her cleft) so the doctor put her on amoxicillin (which she LOVES and wanted more of....hmmmm....moms, how do you deal with this one?!). Other than the ears, he thought she looked great. He took lots of blood (which is routine with internationally adopted babies...they'll check for infectious diseases like hiv, hepatitis, tuberculosis) and asked me to bring back 3 stool samples to check for parasites. I'm thankful she's still in diapers :) So we'll wait for the tests and see him again in a couple of weeks. She'll get some immunizations at that time most likely.

Next week, we see her cleft surgeon for the first time. Hopefully at that visit, we'll decide the best time for her first surgery. Mommy doesn't really want to think about surgery yet though....

Otherwise, she's doing really well! She loves her home and her room. She loves her toys (especially blocks and things she can try to figure out). She's so curious! She loves her baths....and is learning how to brush her very short hair all by herself. Mommy is dressing her in pink as people are mistaking her for a boy....that's ok....mommy was mistaken for a boy too at her age!

Thanks again for the continued prayer for bonding and adjustment to her new life. And thank you too to those who have called and left messages!! I've been so tired that I just haven't been able to answer the phone much but today is a much better day and I will start returning calls very soon!

Love you!!!
Karis and Olivia

p.s....please forgive the poor photo, we need uncle John back here to take better pictures :)

p.s.s....one more cool story! Last night when I stopped at the pharmacy to fill her antibiotic, the pharmacy tech said, "Have you been here before?". I said, "I have, but this one is for my DAUGHTER". It was the first time I said that!! My DAUGHTER!

Safely Home!!

We're HOME!

Olivia was such a trooper. She made it through 14 hours on airplanes, endless security checks (in China they even frisked her!) and lots of waiting in lines. By the time we arrived in Mpls, we were SO happy to see the smiling faces of friends and family, thank you guys so much for welcoming us home. Olivia can't wait to play with Ella (who welcomed her to town so graciously! what a sweetie she is!!) and the other new friends she has yet to meet. And I just have to say a very special thank you to Luanne who took care of us so well at the airport! We even got a congratulations from the pilot on the plane! We also loved our welcome sign and flowers, thanks you tuesday night guys! And thank you auntie Maria for the perfect fitting hat, it was much needed on our drive home and Olivia even left it on her head!

When we got home, Olivia ran around the house like a mad woman, laughing and smiling and so excited! She also spent a little time getting to know grandma and grandpa. It was so precious to see her warm up to them pretty quickly. By the time grandpa had to leave to take John back to the airport (as he had one more flight today, back to San Diego) she was giving hugs to grandma and grandpa (and she does not give out hugs lightly!). Pretty special.

This evening, as we were getting ready for bed, I put on some music and we rocked a little bit. As we rocked, the tears just came and came! After 3 1/2 years of waiting and preparing her room, she is finally here. There were so many times during the wait that I was close to giving up, thinking it would never really happen. But then it did, and she is amazing and she is exactly who God created for me. And me for her. Now I am a mother. And Olivia is a daughter, and a granddaughter, and a neice. It kind of blows me away.

Photo Blitz!

Hi all,

This is my last blog entry before leaving for the US. I know you all have wanted to see more pictures... so I've been working on an Olivia photo ablum. I took over 1,100 pictures on the trip, so the blog is just a sampling. The trouble with taking so many photos is that it takes a long time to sort through them! But at last I've got something ready for you. For those who can't get enough pictures of my cute little neice (a.k.a. Karis' cute little daughter), check out my new Picasa Web album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnday88/OliviaInChina?authkey=FWS8kqrCPAA#

You should not have to sign up for any account to view the album. You should be able to see a nearly full screen slideshow... and you can even download the pictures to your computer.

Enjoy! Now I had better get myself to bed. Tomorrow's trip to the airport comes early!

Uncle John

Homeward Bound!

It's about 9:30 pm here on Tuesday night and we are packed and ready to go. We leave for the airport at 6am tomorrow morning (around 4pm Tuesday afternoon MN time!). Our first flight (to Narita, Japan) is about 4 hours and then an 11 hour flight to Mpls (and then one more flight to SD for my little brother who will by that time be very tired!). Prayers for a good girl on a very long flight would be much appreciated!

A really good thing happened at nap time today. I have a pretty outgoing, non-cuddly little girl (kind of like her mom I guess!). Today at nap time, she let me rock her to sleep for the very first time. It felt so wonderful, and I'm hoping the trend will continue on the airplane tomorrow!

Everything went really well today. We went to the American consulate this afternoon to pick up the babies passports and visas. There were about 50 adoptive parents there with their kids and they had us all stand and take an oath that everything we had written on our documents was true. I was the only one in the room who did not say the pledge outloud as my daughter decided at that very moment to have a very loud tantrum....the whole room laughed. The whole room except mommy.

I can't believe this trip is coming to an end. Thank you for following along with us. It's been so wonderfully comforting to me to know that home has been just a blog away!

We love you!
Karis