We are back home

Believe it or not we are back at home. We did not think we would be back tonight because last night was a tough night followed by a tough morning. But by about 2pm she perked right up, wanted food and water and even smiled a bit. So by 4:30 we gave her a dose of Tylenol with Codine and headed home. They offered for us to stay another night but said in their opinion she was doing everything they wanted her to do in order to go home. She was in quite a bit of pain during the night and just very agitated. But it seems to be under control now. She also had a lot of dips in her oxygen levels when she was in a deep sleep, but nothing that concerned them too much. Her swelling has gone down a lot on her lips and she seems much more relaxed. I really did underestimate the amount of pain she was going to be in the first night. I am so glad that is behind her. Now comes the hard part. We have to keep her in restraints until Jan 28th. YUCK!! It will be a tough couple of weeks but as long as I take it one day at a time we will get through just fine. One funny note is that now that her palate is closed....she snores. She use to sleep so quiet that I would shake her a little to make sure she was breathing in the night. I wont have to do that anymore. haha Thanks for all the prayers. God is so good.

Surgery update #2

It is almost 8pm and I now know that my daughter's future will probably be as a professional wrestler. WOW!!!! Is she strong when she is MAD!!! Her surgery went wonderful. Better then we could have hoped for. Her palate is COMPLETELY closed and the surgeon was able to find the muscles in her palate and move them where they needed to be. Which means that we can anticipate her picking up her speach very well as her speach therapy continues. They wheeled her into us around 4pm and she looked so peaceful asleep in the crip. Then it happened. She woke up and turned into this incredibly strong child that would have rather scratched our eyes out then hug us. Oh my. Poor thing was in sooooo much pain. It took about 2 hours and three doses of morphine to finally get her to relax and sleep. She is in Marks arms now and I was able to get her to drink a little apple juice with a syringe. She gave me a smile and smuckered up to kiss me. I told Mark, "She's back". When Annabel gives you a kiss you know you have won her over. So as of now she is still in pain and will be for a couple of days. She has quite a bit of blood coming out her mouth and ears. But that will pass and she will heal. We have only our God in Heaven to thank for allowing the Surgeon to preform such a perfect surgery. He was nervous that he would not be able to close it completely and couldn't really give us a guarantee...but God took care of that. Now our job is to keep her arm restraints on and keep EVERYTHING out of her mouth for the next 4 weeks. It will be tough and I am sure I will have moments of stir craziness....but she is totally worth every bit of it. Thank you God for answering our prayers. Thank you for all of your prayers as well. I did listen to all the messages today on my cell phone but just haven't had a chance to return many of them. Please forgive me if I don't get back to everyone. But I appreciate so much knowing you are all thinking about and praying for Annabel. I will post again tomorrow. Tamara

Annabel is in surgery today

12:30 pm --- Annabel is in surgery right now to have her cleft palate repaired. She has been in there for about 2 1/2 hours. We have had two updates so far and things were great. She has her ear tubes in place and is a little less then half way through the palate repair. She did fantastic this morning considering we woke her up so early and she was not able to eat or drink. She only cried once and that was when they took her temperature. She was afraid of the doctors clothes. After that she was fine and when we said our goodbyes and she left in the arms of the doctor she was smiling. In fact she kept giving him kisses before she went to him. So I guess that was a good sign. He laughed about that. She should be done in about 2-3 more hours. I will post again after she comes out of recovery. God is so good to us as we have a great sense of peace about us right now. Thank you for prayers. Tamara

Life is Great

I know it has been several weeks since I posted a blog and I have gotten many emails asking how things are going. So here goes.....AMAZING, WONDERFUL AND INCREDIBLE all rolled up into one. I cannot even put words to what a joy and blessing Annabel has been for our family and our relationship with God. She is one of the greatest examples I know of in our life of how God takes each and every one of us in and loves us unconditionally. She has adjusted so well that it doesn't even feel as though she is adopted any more, other then the obvious (Mark and I are not Chinese). haha She fits in beautifully and the kids absolutely love her like crazy. The last few weeks have been some firsts for her. She now climbs stairs, has met Santa, attended her first dance class and eats food that is not broken up into microsize pieces. I am sure she could do that before now but I have been nervous about her choking (yes the new mommy in me again). Now I just hand her a cookie or a slice of cheese and she chows it down. She is no longer gorging her food and that was the main reason we didn't give her whole pieces before now. She now understands that we are here to stay and are going to keep feeding her. I believe before she was afraid each meal was her last. She sleeps all night at least 10 hours (PRAISE GOD!!!!) She naps during the day and last night she actually had her first babysitting experience. Mark had a command Christmas dinner so we left her with a friend and headed out. I will not say it was easy for me though. In fact one hour before dinner began I was suggesting different people he could take in my place because I didn't want to leave her with anyone. But I went and had a blast. They hired a hypnotist and he performed a show with several of Marks friends and coworkers. I don't think I have ever laughed that hard in my entire life. When they were asking for volunteers I wanted to go up there so bad but Mark wouldn't let me. He knew they would do things to embarrass me and he wanted to spare me of that. Thank God he did because they did some crazy things. Annabel is having her surgery in less then three weeks so please be praying she stays well. The last one was canceled due to a cold. So from now one I will do my best to keep her out of large crowds and other small children in order to help keep the spread of colds under control. Some of you have asked if we are still thinking of adopting again. ABSOLUTELY!!! I cannot imagine not adopting again. It has been an amazing experience. Now we just have to wait on God to tell us when to start the process again. The other day at bible study someone asked me how I personally am doing. I told her I don't think I have ever been happier in my life then I am right now. God has used Annabel to do amazing things in our family and in the lives of Amber and Joey as well. I feel we are all closer and better connected then we have ever been and I owe all of that to God. It has all become a reality because of His amazing way He allowed us the opportunity to step out on a leap of faith and follow His Will. I believe with all my heart that the inner peace , contentment and satisfaction are the gifts He gave us for stepping out on faith and trusting in Him.

Joey turns 12

It is unbelievable to me that my son is now 12 years old. This is a very important birthday for him because he now gets to argue with his sister over who is going to ride shot gun in the car. It's been fun watching that battle take place every time we leave the house. Let's just say we are getting out of the house faster because it is a race to the car. haha He celebrated his birthday twice. Once on Wednesday (his true birthday). I cooked his favorite dinner and baked a cake. He opened a few presents that night as well. His favorite being the big monster motorized truck his uncle Ed sent him. Annabel thought it was for her as you can see from the pictures. He then had a great birthday party on Saturday at the bowling alley followed by a trip to the movies. I would have to say he had a pretty great birthday this year.

Pre-Op appointment at Childrens Hospital

Today was Annabel's pre-op appointment at Children's Hospital. She was suppose to have her surgery this coming Friday....but it had to be postponed. She has a bit of a cold right now so they will not risk surgery. Her operation requires putting a breathing tube in her while she is being operated on. They cannot put the tube in if her throat is irritated in any way from coughing. So we will know more later in the week. We were told she needs at least 2 full weeks of being healthy before surgery so I think we will just wait until after Christmas for the next attempted date. I hope we don't spend all of winter scheduling and canceling surgery dates due to our winter crud. haha We spent about 6 hours at the hospital today being seen by so many different doctors and nurses. They were very thorough and extremely helpful. She is in such great hands. The last appointment was so funny. She was soooooo ready to leave that when the nurse opened the door she darted out and down the hall. We all just laughed and said "See ya, I am so out of here". Besides having a cold, she is doing amazing. I have her involved in a couple of children's groups now and she really enjoys the other kids. I purchased a sling this weekend and she absolutely loves me carrying her around in it. It has really helped my back too. I wish I had it in China. Since being home, Annabel has only gained a couple of ounces. She is only 2% on the weight chart so today we met with the nutritionist, along with many other specialists, and she gave us some great ideas on how to beef up her calorie intake. She has grown in height a little bit though and her head measurements have grown as well. They were very pleased about that. All in all it was a great day. We met a young woman with a new baby born just like Annabel with bilateral cleft lip and palate. She was so scared. But I really think that seeing Annabel and talking with us helped ease her mind. She couldn't believe that Annabel looked like her son just one year ago. Modern medicine is just amazing. His surgery is later this week. I pray is goes well for them.

Annabel's Toddler Shower

Today was Annabel's Toddler shower. I had a combined shower with a friend from my church named Jennifer who just had a baby girl. We had such a great time. It was a Mexican potluck and it was fabulous!!! I am so grateful for my mother-in-law for orchestrating the entire event. I know she worked herself to the bone to make sure we had a wonderful day...and we did. Thank you so much Jan. And thank you to those who helped her make it so perfect. It meant more to me then you will ever know. Annabel was a ham of course, especially when Mark played our adoption video. Annabel watches it all the time at home and knows the pictures by heart. Each time her picture came up she went nuts. She definitely knows herself in photos and on video. She loved the Mexican food and loved playing with all her new toys when she got home. As you can see she got more gifts then she knew what to do with. We have really been holding out on buying toys and clothes since we knew the baby shower was coming up. So thank you to everyone who attended and thank you for all the wonderful gifts. It meant so much to me that you came to celebrate with us. I also want to thank all my other dear friends who could not come today who have taken the time to mail or stop by with presents for Annabel over the past few weeks. You have all been so generous. It has been such a joy opening each and every gift and reading each card. You have all made Annabel feel so welcomed and warmed my heart with your kindness. She loved it all today and especially flocked to her new dolls. Which is so wonderful considering she was terrified of dolls when we first received her. She has been feeding her babies all evening. Thanks again for everything. I feel very blessed to have so many amazing women in my life. God Bless!!!!