Happy Halloween

Tonight was a great night for the kids. Amber and Joey both went trick or treating with their friends, even though they both claimed they were too old to put on a costume. haha I was impressed as they both put their costumes together at the last minute from what they had in Ambers closet. They had a great time with that. Annabel's costume on the other hand was purchased months ago from a garage sale. It's a small adoption world we live in. I was in Vancouver about 5 months ago and happened to stumble upon a garage sale. I saw the most adorable lady bug costume and had to have it. It was only $3. Who can pass that up???? As it turned out the women originally bought it for her brother who adopted two little girls from China. So she was thrilled to hear it would be worn by another China baby. And she looked adorable in it as you can see. Annabel and I went to three of my neighbors homes so she could see what trick or treating was all about. But I think she definitely preferred staying home and greeting the guests. The hardest part of the night was keeping Annabel from kissing the glass door. Why do kids love to do that?? YUCK!!! The kids came home on time with a ton of candy as usual and headed off to bed. All in all it was a great night for everyone.

Visit to Children's Hospital

Believe it or not, that is actually a great big ice cream grin on her face.....Well, things are going very well in our household these days. We feel as though we are almost settled back into some routines and the best news is....Annabel is sleeping all night long (well at least the last four nights) Praise God!!!! One of my dear friends, Diane, gave me a port-a-crib for my office and today I officially tested it out for the first time. I was able to get a few things done at my desk while she sat in there playing with her toys. She actually fell asleep for a few minutes too. Thanks Diane!!! Well, we had our first visit to Children's hospital this week. They treated us great as I knew they would. We met with the entire cranial facial team of doctors and nurses who will be taking care of all her needs in the upcoming months and years. Her first surgery is scheduled for November 23rd. Her palate will be repaired that day. To my surprise her plastic surgeon would like to do an additional surgery several months down the line to redo her lip too. I wasn't expecting to hear that because I felt she had a pretty good repair already. But he said he can do an even better job. I am so thrilled for her for that. So it will be an extra surgery but well worth it for her sake. Next week we have many appointments here in town...dentist, hearing, vision, speech eval...etc. But we wanted to get the ball rolling quickly so she has the best care possible. As many of you know we had a friend of ours from church pass away yesterday. His name is Duane and he has been battling cancer for almost a year now. Please pray for his family as they go through this terrible time of pain. Out of respect for the family we decided it was best to postpone Annabel's toddler shower to another weekend so that the church could be fully utilized for the funeral. So we moved it to November 10th. You are all welcomed to come. I know many of you have called to ask about our home in San Diego. Thank you so much for your concern. The latest is that they are evacuating some of the surrounding areas, but as of now it is our understanding that our neighborhood has not been evacuated. According to the evacuation map evacuation is only a few blocks down the road though. I continue to pray for that entire area. I was born and raised in San Diego so it is very sad watching the news and watching so much of it being destroyed in just a few days. Sadder even is hearing about families losing their homes and the injuries that have taken place as a result of the fires. God is good and through all of this devastation I know a lot of greatness will come. We have already seen so much of that in the way the people of San Diego have stepped up to help one another during this very difficult time. God is good...all the time.

Homecoming game and dance

This past weekend was Ambers first High School Homecoming game and dance. During the game she played in the band. The game was packed. Not a seat in the house. We were lucky to be able to find seats with our friends, Pete and Laura. Annabel loved the game. Everytime it got loud with cheers she started clapping right along with the crowd. It was so cute.
The next night was the Homecoming dance. Amber prepped with nail appointments for both her hands and feet as well as an updo hair style. She looked beautiful. We took Amber and some friends out for Mexican food and ice cream before the Homecoming dance. It was a great evening of enjoying their company and getting over the shock of them no longer being little girls.

Settled In

Well things in our household are finally settled down and feeling "normal" again. I was so surprised it took us so long to recover from the jet lag. I am sure having a baby who didn't sleep through the night made it a little tougher. But I am thrilled to report that Annabel now sleeps through the night in her port-a-crib. She goes down around 10:30 and I usually have to wake her up in the morning. I have been able to get showered every morning. Yea!!!! So things from that end are looking great. She even let Mark put her to bed last night. We have also been able to get her to now go to bed without a bottle. It was difficult in the beginning because she was obviously use to that, but we knew we had to break that habit. She now has a bottle around 8pm, we brush her teeth afterwards, let her play a little and then she is ready for bed around 10:30. We are slowly moving that time frame up. I would like to see her in bed by 8pm within a week or so. Due to her cleft palate, it takes her over an hour and a half to drink 4 ounces of Milk/formula so we are getting a lot of cuddling time throughout the day and evening. She is such a sweet little girl. Bless her heart she had her first round of blood work today. It took four of us to hold her down. It was so sad to watch her cry so hard. They had a hard time finding her vein so that of course didn't help. It took two pokes and a lot of moving around of the needle to find the vein. But she seems to be doing fine tonight. Another issue we have been dealing with that we are praying is behind us are her night terrors. She didn't have them in China but once we got home she started. She had four of them last week on four different nights. They each lasted between 20-45 minutes and were pretty severe. Looking back they all seemed to occur on the nights she didn't have a bowel movement. She dealt with some constipation the first week home so we are hoping that was all it was. So far she has gone the last 3 nights without any terrors. Praise God!!! I want to let all of the families that we traveled to China with know how much we miss you and your little ones. I haven't had a lot of computer time since getting home and am very much looking forward to checking out your blog sites this weekend to see how things are going in your homes. Thank you for your posts and your emails. It has been great hearing from you. I pray that your little ones are starting to fall into some great routines and that you adults are all rested up from traveling. God has truly blessed each of our families and I know we are all forever changed because of it.

Everyday it feels more like home

Hello everyone. The last few days with Annabel have been so much fun. Our prayers are being answered in that two nights ago she slept for over 10 hours in her port-a-crib. Praise God!!! Now our prayer is a little more specific. Let's pray she does that more then one night in a row. haha Last night was not so easy. She ended up in bed with me again. Don't get me wrong...I love cuddling with her. But she reminds me of a 300 professional wrestler when you get her in bed with you. She kicks, squirms, twists and turns all night long. She might be getting sleep but believe me, Mark and I are not. haha I spend my whole night trying to keep her from flying off of the bed in her sleep. I know tonight will be better because she is worn out. She will sleep great tonight. I am crossing my fingers as I speak.
We had a great day yesterday. We went shopping at the mall to get Amber a formal gown for Homecoming. Her dress is so beautiful. I can't wait to take pictures of her and her friends all dressed up. I had to laugh while we were shopping thinking I cant believe we are buying formal attire for our oldest daughter and diapers for our youngest on the same day. Who knew two years ago we would be starting over. In the words of Stephen Curtis Chapman, things have never been more crazy and wonderful at the same time. Annabel has turned our quiet house upside down but I would not change it for anything. We love her so much. It is so hard for me to believe she hasnt been with us since day one. Yesterday she had her first taste of Mexican food and Crispy cream doughnuts. I wish I had my video camera for both. She was hysterical. We couldn't cut it up fast enough for her.
Today we attended Church for the first time since coming home. It was so great to see everyone and feel normal again. We were greeted with a lot of hugs and love. I appreciate that so much everyone. Thank you for reminding me of what a fabulous church family we have. I missed it so much while away. Even though we were only gone for two weeks, it felt like much longer because I was very homesick for my kids while we were gone. We had a great time at church and Annabel seemed to love the music. She loves to dance and sing at home. After church we went and spent some time at grandmas. They spent some time bonding as you can see in the photos.
Tonight Joey made a very difficult decision to give his beloved ferret to a wonderful woman to raise for him. He loves her so much but just doesn't have the time now that he is back in school to give her the attention she deserves. So she came and picked her up tonight. Joey thanked her several times for taking such good care of her for him. She also has Ambers ferret (she got her a few months back). So she felt very blessed to have them both together to play with one another. I am so proud of Joey for putting the ferrets needs above his own. He seems fine with his decision because he knew she has just not had the chance to play as much since school started. The women who has both of our ferrets gives them a lot more freedom then they had here so I know they will be very happy with her. Thank you Beverly.

She likes the dog!!!!

It has been so exciting to watch Annabel grow and learn to trust us this week. It has been such an incredible week and a fantastic two days. First of all she is in her Port-a-crib for the 4th time. Each time we have been able to get her to sleep in it for about an hour. She has still been in bed with me each night(we finally gave in two nights ago), but it is a start. I believe tonight might be the night she spends the entire night in the crib (or at least a good part of it) only because she is very tired tonight and is already asleep. It is only 8:39pm. Praise God!! That sure beats 4am. She has had her first car seat experience this week. She LOVES her car seat because she enjoys looking out while we are driving. Everything is so new to her. She also did great at Walmart in the shopping cart for the first time. As you can see from the pictures one of her greatest accomplishments is that she is finally NOT terrified of the dog. In fact she follows him around everywhere. It is just too cute. We have to stop her over and over from trying to kiss the dog as you can see in the picture. She just puckers up and is ready for kisses. Of course the dog thinks it is great. So she has heard the word "no" a lot today. This morning she attended her first Sales Director meeting away from home and welcomed a few more of my friends to the house. She is definitely proving herself to be a child who can handle change with stride and can very easily adjust to just about any situation.

Falling into some routines

Hello everyone, I know many of you have been keeping up with my blog and wondering why I haven't posted anything substantial yet since getting home. So here is an attempt to catch up. First of all Annabel is doing amazing considering all she has been through. She has been pulled away from everything she has ever known and taken to a foreign country with people she never knew before. Wow..that would be scary for me, I can't imagine what she is thinking. She is doing great during the day. She has taken to the whole family and is actually starting to pet the dog. She was terrified of him at first. Poor puppy. He couldn't figure out why each time he came near her she would scream bloody murder. haha She is eating great and babbling like crazy. We hear some American words mixed in there amongst the jibber jabber. We took her to urgent care yesterday so we could get some medication for her eye (the doctor thought it was the start of pink eye). But after getting her home we felt it was probably just a cold in her eye because she caught a cold after flying. We couldn't get in yet with her Doctor because her paperwork was still processing to be put on our insurance so it was very nice of them to see her considering she wasn't even covered yet. They worked it out with us though because they knew we had been through so much in the days prior with travel and all. We ventured out today to the bank, church and a couple of stops on the base. She did great. She absolutely LOVES her car seat which shocked me. She loves just sitting there looking out as we drive. Thank You Lord for that one. I do have a prayer request for you all and that is that Annabel would fall madly in love with her porta crib, or her crib or even a sleeping bag on the floor. Anything that doesn't involve sleeping on my stomach. I think I have an invisible umbilical cord growing out of me. She only sleeps if she is attached to me. In China she slept all night in her crib with no problems. In fact she didn't want to be in bed with me at all at night. Here she wont go in her crib awake and if we move her she automatically wakes up. So the first two nights I slept either on the floor or on the recliner in my room with her. Last night I gave in and put her into bed with me. But she wiggles too much and doesn't sleep sound. Which means we have been taking a lot of little cat naps on the recliner during the day. Our sleep is all messed up to say the least. haha But she is still very happy when she is awake. My travel group has been emailing back and forth and it sounds like another family is experiencing the same thing which is very normal for these children. I would imagine she is scared that if she gets in that crib and falls asleep that we wont be there in the morning. Bless her heart. Other then the sleep issues I could not ask for a better situation. She loves us so much as we do her and we feel so very blessed to have her. God did an amazing job of matching her to us. As for us, feel free to call now. I know many of you have been so kind as to email asking for permission to call as you didn't want to disturb us. We would love to catch up and are even up to visitors. I do thank you for the privacy you have all given us the last couple of days though and the emails checking in on us. We are so grateful to be home. God Bless, Mark and Tamara