Surgery Update

We met with Lydia's surgeon and she has a fistula (hole) in her palate. We already knew because you can see it in her mouth, but he explained that unless it causes issues with speech or eating they will just leave it for now and fix it when she's older. Before the surgery her palate was completely open, now there's just a hole in the middle with most of it closed. We're a little disappointed but it is what it is.

Typically fistulas happen because there isn't enough skin to close the palate. When she's older they will take some from the inside of her cheek. The surgeon had already mentioned that she would probably need her lip revised to remove some of the scarring so unless there's a reason to do it earlier he will do her lip and fistula when she's older.

Then and Now

Adopting Gabby has brought so many wonderful people into our life. We met Stacey and Dave at our adoptive parenting class as they were waiting to bring home Harper from China in 2005.  They traveled with Denise and Steve who were bringing home Audrey at the same time. We happened to meet them at a Little Gym class.  Since then this little trio of girls have been fast friends and our families have become each other's extended family.  Tonight it was Gabby's turn to host the sleepover and as I snapped pictures, I couldn't help but remember one of their first posed photos so long ago in the same spot in our house. 



Gabby and her friends Audrey and Harper (aka The China Girls) during one of their first summer playdates. Still in diapers, sippy cups and princess outfits.

Now they are first graders, watching Barbie "A Fashion Fairytale" movie and big enough for sleepovers. Long hair, missing teeth, but still dressed up in princess outfits within 10 minutes of arrival.

How quickly they grow up.  How lucky we are to have such beautiful, amazing girls as our daughters. 

Happy BERTday to our Nanny

Hope you have a wonderful day Nanny!  We miss you!

A visit to the pumpkin patch

It was a beautiful day on Saturday and we went for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, only this time with our little Lydia in tow. Double the fun!

 

Getting ready to explore the hay maze.

Big sister leading little sister through the maze.

A girl is not complete with out a pink heart painted on her cheek!

Playing in the corn was so fun!



Leave to us to find the ONE pink tractor in the place!



Watch out when it's time for us to drive!

These horses will have to do, the real ponies were running late that day.

We are ready for Halloween!

After much debate and discussion, Gabby has finally decided what she will be for Halloween.
It couldn't be a princess cause some kids in her class think princesses are for babies.  But she knew she wanted a dress that had pink, purple and blue. I was trying to steer her towards the fifties dress or Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.  But then she came across an outfit called Harajuku Cutie ( kind of a Japanese punk rock girl)  that had all the colors she was looking for and it was no longer up for debate.   After we got home and did the makeup and hair to match,  I  quickly realized that the days of simply dressing as a ladybug or  black cat are over.  Of course when Gabby was getting dressed up, Lydia began to strip down too, so we got out Gabby's first Halloween costume...the ladybug princess which Lydia looked adorable in.  When it came time to put on makeup...Little one was right there in line for the lip gloss!  Poor Rob...the teenage years are going to be lots of fun for him!



Adding the finishing touches to our costume.



Not even two yet, but quickly has learned how to pucker those lips for the gloss.

A girl can never be too sparkly!

Too cute for words.





Mirror, Mirror...

Well it's not a mirror exactly, but Lydia sure had a good time with her reflection she found in the oven door.

Looks like another sassy girl in the house has been created!

The first video she is telling off her reflection, saying no and pointing that finger

 (whereever did she learned that one?)  What cracks us up is her expression as she walks away, a mad smirk on her face, she is ready for her Oscar anyday now!

The next two she was playing peek a boo and cracking herself up. 

She was very aware of the camera at this point.

Four days post surgery

It's been four days since Little One's surgery. To see her play and run around the house you'd never know she'd been through anything.  She is sleeping well, generally happy to have the drops put in her ears for her tubes....not so happy when it is time to take her pain medecine.  We look back at the pictures we didn't post right after her surgery and see how swollen her face was and how sore her mouth looked it is amazing how well she is healing.  She's eating more each day but drinking is almost nonexistent. Luckily we can "count" melted ice cream and thinned down pudding as liquids, but we scrutinize each wet diaper and keep track of what she is able to drink and eat. 

 She still likes watermelon which we chopped into tiny pieces and noodle soup so she's getting fluids with her food but we'd like to see her drinking. Everything we're giving her is the extra-sugar type - no 'no sugar added' apple sauce for her, and even the Carnation instant breakfast drinks to get her calories in.  Anything to motivate to put food in her mouth that is still so raw and sore. 

 We made the mistake of giving her a melted fruit juice bar that must have been really high in citric acid.  She began to point to corners of her mouth first that are sore from the device they used to hold her mouth open during surgery, and then she began to cry really hard and point to her mouth.  It all ended with her throwing up what little she did eat which we know had to really hurt coming back up.   Never occurred to us that our choice would cause her pain.  Then we began to think of the pain one gets when peeling an orange with a papercut, and realized that the whole inside of her mouth is filled with "papercuts".... so that has been at the forefront of our minds when we taste things before giving them to her.

It'll only be a three weeks and then it's back to her normal diet (I'm sure some Chinese crackers will be first on the menu).  In the meantime we are enjoying our time at home with our Little One.  She is having fun playing with her doctor kit which must take on new meaning now for her.  She is enjoying slurping up strawberry ice cream (her new favorite flavor.)  Meanwhile, Gabby had a great time over the weekend at the balloon festival in Forest Park.  Many thanks to Nana, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Scott for taking her so she could shock us all by climbing a rock wall!  Brave girl!

It will only hurt for a minute Mr. Panda...

Mmmmmm...ice cream

What's so funny?

Our daredevil Gabby!

We're home

The Hospital discharged us this morning and Lydia is doing great. She was eating mashed banana, yogurt and some scrambled eggs this morning and was back to charming all of the nurses. We were home by 11 am and Lydia was celebrating her freedom by charging around the house and getting into everything (more so than usual). She took a good nap this afternoon, we'd like her to be drinking more - I think we just need to find something with the right consistency.

And it's morning

It's morning already and we had a really good night. Around 10pm Lydia was going strong, happy and still watching Baby Einstein. We, however, were feeling the stress of the long day and needing to sleep. Finally we turned the TV off, turned off all the lights and told Little One 'Night Night' like we do every night. Lydia laid back and fell asleep without a peep.

The plan was for Rob to go home and get a good night's sleep, but that didn't happen, we both decided to stay the night with Kara on the less comfortable pull out chair. Lydia was only up during the night to get her Tylenol every 4 hours, other than that she slept great and was relatively happy.

This morning she woke up around 5:30 (but I think it was mostly one of the IV's beeping that woke us up), she was due for her meds at 4:30 so she slept longer. Most of her cries now seem more mad than pain, especially when the nurses start messing with her.

We're not 'done' yet but so far Lydia has been a trooper. So far Lydia been eating her mixture of milk and pudding and she has drank a little apple juice. Unless something else comes up I think we'll be sticking to the plan of going home sometime today.

Zzzzzzzz...

Ahhhh...we are finally sleeping!  After another dose of pain meds, Lydia was sitting up and began showing interest in the tv....so we put on one of the Baby Einstein dvds and in came the wonderful cleft team nurse with her 'magic' pudding treat (thinned out pudding with milk).  It worked wonders on Lydia who was not interested in eating any applesauce earlier.  She ate almost 6 ounces and soon with a full belly she laid back and fell asleep. :)

Just down the hallway is a pantry stocked with all sorts of puddings, ice cream and drinks so I can go there and get more soft items for Lydia to eat when the mood strikes.  Now time for us to get a bit of rest too....

Just trying to find what works...

After we got settled in the room, the nurses have been great explaining what we can do to keep Lydia comfortable.  The new pediatric tower is beautiful. One of the team brought by a stuffed duck just for Lydia and some Baby Einstein dvd's for us to watch if that will help soothe her.  When she becomes more active, they will bring by toys for her to play with....they do think of everything here.  We are so lucky to have such great facilities so close to home.  There is a Ronald McDonald house on the floor to get free snacks and drinks, we feel so fortunate knowing that we will be able to leave the hospital tomorrow with our Lydia, while other families deal with much greater obstacles with their children.

The drainage has slowed down, but Lydia couldn't get settled down in her bed so Rob and I have been taking turns rocking her.  During the surgery she had morphine and once in the room, they moved her to Tylenol with codeine.  It should have kicked in about 30-45 minutes after they gave it to her, but she just couldn't get comfortable and kept setting off the monitors because she was crying or moving so much.
The nurse decided to give her morphine again to help with the pain since the Tylenol didn't seem to be helping.  Rob came back from lunch and brought me something to eat, so we switched off and the new meds are working a bit, but we know she is still in pain because she is whimpering a lot. :(

So we are just taking it hour by hour, grateful for all the prayers and well wishes we are getting from friends and family.

Palate is done

We're in the pediatric ICU. The palate surgery went fine and Lydia is doing well. She has a lot of drainage from her mouth which we expected. Lydia was in recovery around 9am and we were called back there around 9:30. By 10:30 or so we headed up to the ICU. She's laying on Kara now trying to get as comfortable as possible.

Tubes are in

Little one has her ears done already, and is currently having the palate surgery.


We were up bright and early and at the hospital right at 6am. Lydia was charming everyone with smiles and waves and was in a very happy mood, blissfully unaware of what was coming her way. After we had checked-in, signed consents, etc the nurse came and gave her a syringe of something to 'calm her down' and it certainly did it's job! We had a drunken baby gooning at us. The only time she cried was when the nurse came to take her down to the operating room.


The ENT came in about 20 minutes later and told us that he was done, so now we wait for the palate surgeon to check-in with us.

Active before the meds...

Mellow after the meds...

Surgery on the 16th

Lydia's surgery is on September 16th - this Thursday! She has a slight cold and a little cough so we're hoping that the surgery will happen, but whatever is best for her is more important. Surgery is scheduled for 7am and she will have ear tubes put in first then her palate repair. The hospital said they have her down for 90 minutes total - so hopefully it'll be quick but we know it will not be painless :(

We'll have some long nights and plenty of crying, I'm sure, but the timing is so right. Lydia is really trying to talk, watching our mouths and trying to copy the sounds. She is saying 'no' clearly which is very cute.

We're planning on taking a laptop to the hospital and if they have wi-fi we'll post more (or at least that's the plan).

Sisters

The weeks are flying past and we're still trying to adjust to being a family of four! This last weekend as we try to wrangle two active girls through the grocery store we decided that we'll divide and conquer the regular weekend chores and errands from now on.


Gabby continues to be a great big sister (albeit a little overzealous at times). Gabby has started first grade and has lost another tooth. This time it was with much more drama. One evening she managed to knock her tooth while eating and it bled a little, the next evening it came out while eating - very dramatic but at least she didn't swallow it.

Lydia continues to make her thoughts and feelings known, I'm trying to figure out how much sound can come from someone so little. I think both Gabby and Lydia are learning how to push each other buttons. Lydia has her surgery scheduled for Sept. 16th. We're anxious about the surgery but these last couple of weeks has shown us that she's right at the critical time to get her palate fixed and start on speech therapy too.

Gotcha Day Video

We finally got around to looking over the video from our video camera and not just the short clips from the digital camera. In many ways it already seems like a lifetime ago since we got Lydia, but in other ways it's feels like yesterday when she was handed over. When we got Gabby she cried for the first couple of days so we were expecting anything from Lydia. It's hard to hear her crying on that day but we know that the tears soon dry as the bonds begin. Driving from the adoption office feeling her cling to me as she fell asleep is something I'll never forget. I wouldn't change a single thing about our time in China.

Another loose tooth gone

After what seems like weeks of Gabby having a loose front tooth, tonight it finally came out. With barely a whimper but much excitement Gabby found the tooth lying in her palm while reading books with Kara. Now the tooth is inside her tooth pillow waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy.

Wiggly...

... and finally out!

First Cleft Team Visit

July 30 was our first visit with the cleft team that we'll be working with for Lydia's cleft repair. We arrived for the appointment around 8am and there were quite a few other families in the waiting room including a few China girls. We were shown to into a waiting room that had a few toys and such to keep Little One occupied.

Four hours later we were done and Lydia had been seen by an ENT, audiologist, geneticist, speech pathologist, dentist, behaviour, plastic surgeon and the cleft team nurse. Lydia did great, a lot better than we had expected her to react to seeing so many strangers in such a short amount of time. By the end of the day she was cozying up to the plastic surgeon and trying to get his attention. The cleft team visit is something that we will have every year and right now we're feeling lucky to have such easy access to a team of physicians that will give Lydia all of the care she'll need.

Lydia has some fluid in her ears so she'll be getting ear tubes at the same time as her palate surgery. In the hearing test she was not responding on her left side as well as she did for her right side, but hopefully the tubes will take care of that. The plastic surgeon said that her mouth and jaw look good and we're hoping that she'll only need the one surgery. There's always the possibility that her palate will be too short, or that holes (fistulas) in the palete will form after the surgery. She does has some thick scarring on her lip that may need to be fixed later but it is still healing as her lip surgery was only performed at the end of March.

We're currently waiting on confirmed dates for her surgery but it'll probably be sometime in September. It is best to get the cleft repaired as soon as possible to avoid any further speech delays or problems.

Jesus wants my Cheerios

Sunday we had Lydia baptized at our church. It was a special day for us because it was our 11th wedding anniversary as well. The service was very nice and Lydia did great. There were two baptisms in the service which they performed at the beginning of the service. We expected Lydia to have a melt-down but she was happy looking at everyone and getting attention. We were so happy that Kara's sister Kathy, husband Don and niece Rachel came in town just for the occasion.  They, along with Kara's brother Steve and sister in law Kelley, served as godparents to our little Lydia.

Back in our pews and Lydia got a little fussy so we pulled out the crackers (gone in 60 seconds...) and her Cheerios (in a 'snack trap' that slows down the shoveling of food into the mouth). Lydia settled into a steady rhythm of eating and started to look around, at this point she notices the big banner next to us with Jesus on it. She makes her usual little screech and pulls her Cheerios as far away from the banner as possible and looks at us like "He wants my Cheerios", we told her that she's okay her snacks are safe. She's quite the character....but we have learned that she doesn't want anyone messing with her when she is eating!

After the baptism we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for a post-baptism/welcome home party. We were so lucky to have many friends and family come by to celebrate with us!  Lydia fell asleep during the short drive from the church to the restaurant and missed half of the party, but was much happier once she woke up for the rest of the party.

Gabby had a great time seeing her cousins and her 'China girls' who were anxious to play with Lydia once she has settled in a bit more.  It was such a special day to officially welcome Lydia into our extended group of family and friends.  

A New Bike For Gabby

Gabby has been asking us for a while to get a new bike....her last one still had a handle on it for us to push her so she was LONG overdue for an upgrade. Since she's not the sole focus of our attention anymore we thought it'd be a good time to get her a new bike.

She has been doing great with all the changes, but there are times when she feels jealous and left out of the lime light that for the last 5 years shone brightly on her alone. She has been a big help and a great big sister, but at times it is tricky to keep both our girls happy.  Lydia is clearly trying to stake out her territory as well so at some point during the day there are tears.   We can't give both Gabby and Lydia 100% of our equal attention, eventually someone gets jealous - Gabby pouts, Lydia screams.....we roll our eyes knowing that this is part of parenthood.  However it is amazing to think that they have both been sisters for under two weeks and already can see the bond forming between the two girls.

It was rainy on Sunday by the time Rob got the bike put together, so we took Gabby and Lydia to a local park on Monday afternoon to test it out. Gabby did really well (with the training wheels for now) and we all had a good time. Lydia started off on her little trike but soon figured out that the stroller was easier.

We also found that a new play area had been installed in the park so we stopped off and gave the girls time to run around.  It was fun to see Lydia try to keep up with Gabby as she climbed like a monkey....she is definitely going to be a "me too" little sister.  She is always checking out what Gabby is eating to see if she has the same snack.  It goes both ways....Gabby has eaten more crackers this week than ever because that is one of Lydia's favorite snacks so of course Gabby has to have the same.

The up side of this "me too" game is that today when Kara took Lydia to get new shoes, she was reluctant to put her foot down to be measured by the salesperson.  Of course Gabby was right there to do it first and then Lydia couldn't get her foot measured fast enough. 

Ready to go to the park.

Peek-a-boo Lydia!

Peek-a-boo Gabby!

Getting  along great on her new bike.

The First Week

We've been home a week, in some ways it seems like a lifetime ago since Lydia's Gotcha day.

We had to redo one of Lydia's blood tests but everything came back clear. So far so good on the health front. She's been eating well and while she's healthy and obviously well taken care of in China we're determined to feed her until she pops and pack some weight onto her. Fruit firmly remains her favorite food.

Rob went back to work on Wednesday and Lydia cried after him. Thursday she cried a little less and Friday there was barely a whimper. Rob has mixed feelings about this but as soon as Rob comes home she turns into Velcro baby and wants to be held.

She has a healthy fear of strangers and turns very shy when people come over. We had a visit from the McCluskie clan on Friday afternoon and it took a while for her to warm up but even them it was a luke warm reaction. "Uncle Pap" and "Aunt Mimi" surprised us with a rocking horse for Lydia. It's the perfect size for her and even Gabby can get on it too.

Saturday morning we had a visit from Jamie, Betsy and Maeve. Lydia at least manged to get off of Rob to play a little. The biggest motivation came when we put snacks in the cup in her table and then it was time to grab hand fulls and shove into her mouth before Maeve could get any... all I can say it that daycare is going to be fun! Little One did offer one puff to Maeve so there is a glimmer of hope that she'll learn to share.

Nana also came on Saturday and Lydia is finally warming up to her too, playing with barrettes in her hair :)

Discovering the Wiggles!

Playing on my new horse.

Sharing with Maeve... almost.

Okay...okay.....I'll share with the baby.

First Pediatrician Visit

We had our first visit to the pediatrician and we survived!

Little one has already been through so much but we wanted to get her in front of our doctor before Rob went back to work. She did great although was pretty unhappy for most of the time. According to the U.S. growth charts shes tiny but that doesn't really mean anything since she's Asian. Lydia is doing fine and if she's anything like Gabby she'll grow like a weed for the first six months or so.

It's recommended that vaccinations are re-started due to quality issues of shots in China (expired shots, or not refrigerated properly, etc) so Rob had to pin Lydia down while she had four shots for today's visit - with another followup in a month. Once the shots were done both Lydia and Gabby got a little cup of Animal Crackers, which both girls took it as a personal challenge to eat as fast as possible.

Just as with Gabby we also had to have blood drawn, deciding to bite the bullet we took Lydia to Quest and had that done too. As Rob sat and held Lydia for the blood work I think she was most annoyed at being physically constrained, as soon as it was over she stuck the rest of her cracker in her mouth and the crying stopped immediately. We still have to visit the Health Department to get a TB test done.

Also we can't forget the poop samples taken over three days. This time around it's Kara's turn as Rob did it for Gabby, it's quite the role reversal this time around.

Since it was had been a rough day we stopped off at Target to get some Infant Tylenol and a toy or two for the girls.

Pool Time

Today was a perfect day to get out the kiddie pool and have some fun in the water. While a little chilly at first Lydia soon got the idea of how things work.

Little One also has a fascination for the dog. Every time she see Brinkley she will stop, point and make a high pitched 'huh' sound. I don't think it's mutual fascination as Brinkley spends most of her time trying to avoid the new addition to the family. When she does manage to corner the dog Lydia will try to get as close as possible and hold out her finger, if the dog licks it she then squeals and backs away quickly.

Yay - we slept through the night!

Ah... what a difference a good night's sleep makes.

We didn't wake up until 5:30 this morning. Even with all the fireworks going off, not a peep until this morning. We're fed and happy, playing with big sister :)

The First Couple of Days

We arrived home to balloons and a 'Welcome Home' sign courtesy of our awesome neighbors Betsy and Jamie. They also picked up our mail (no thanks to USPS for not stopping our mail like we asked) and kept our frogs and bamboo alive while we were gone - thank you!

Lydia has been exploring the house a little, although the basement is off-limits for now. We're also trying to adjust to the time change. Lydia has been waking up at night, the first night was at 3:00 am, the second was fighting sleep from 1:30 until we finally got up again around 3:30 am. While she takes her nap we're napping too but we're all feeling sleep deprived - except for Gabby who is bounding around the house in her usual full-of-energy way. She's also paying Rob more attention than usual - much to the jealously of Lydia (which I think Gabby is secretly enjoying).

Sunday morning we dressed up and went to the grocery store - nice to be able to hop in the car and drive yourself to the grocery store and load up on familiar foods again. We've eased up on the rationing of the yogurt melts now that we can buy more but Lydia is still trying her best to inhale them. Lydia and Gabby wore matching outfits for their debut outing. Nobody stopped and stared and we didn't collect a mob of old ladies following us shaking their fingers in disgust at their lack of clothes!

Lydia and Gabby are getting along great. Lydia showed us how much of a copycat she is in China and now she is copying Gabby too. While perched on the side of the bed watching TV, little sister Lydia had to scoot over until she was right on the edge too - she didn't appreciate being moved back into the 'safety zone'. Seeing Lydia unhappy made Gabby move back too - she'll be a great big sister.

We're hoping Lydia will sleep through the night tonight - or at least beyond 3:00 am in the morning.

"Welcome Home!"

Little Sister, Big Sister.

Getting lots of attention.

Ready to go.

We have Lydia - check!

We have Gabby - check!

Finally figured out the sippy cup.

The Journey Home

It was one very long day but everything turned out great.

We were up and leaving the hotel at 5:30 am, on the bus to the airport, checked in and then on the first flight at 8:00. The plane looked newer and during take off/landing they had a live feed from outside the plane which was cool to see the runway go flying by and then drop away. Lydia slept a little and ate a little. Three hours later we were back in Beijing. The airline in Guangzhou would not give boarding passes for Lydia beyond Beijing, we had ours all the way to St. Louis but we had to check-in Lydia in Beijing. Since it was still early United did not have a gate assignment yet so we had to wait before going through security. There was a "Kenny Roger's Roasters" at the airport that we thought we'd try. Unfortunately it was probably the worst meal we'd ever had, Rob's chicken had a weird taste to it but Lydia enjoyed her potato salad.

Once we knew our gate we got on the train and go through security and wait around for the long flight home. Lydia spent the time sleeping, eating, and cooing at everyone around her. Lydia had a little wiggle room in her seat and eventually could get comfortable enough to sleep. The long flight wasn't that bad but don't ask us to do it again anytime soon.

We arrived in Chicago, happy to see all the signs in English! We get through the first passport check quickly and they put all of Lydia's paperwork in a pink folder. We get our bags for customs and the pink folder flags the customs people to refer us to the immigration officers first to get Lydia's visa processed. We add our folder to the line and see seven or eight others in front of us. By this time an hour has gone by and we soon realize that we probably will not make the St. Louis flight. Kara makes a quick call to Kay (since we were warned that if customs see you using a cell phone they will confiscate it). We chat to some of the others waiting and one guy has already missed his flight. We get Lydia changed into her clean 'meet-and-greet' outfit and try to deal with sitting with nothing to do, nothing to eat, nothing to drink.

Our St. Louis flight leaves at 7:10 pm and around 6:30 our name is called. The officer asks us if we have the extra photos of Lydia as he cannot find the ones that should be included in our paperwork. He says he would check the trash in case they were thrown out when her folder was opened and we should check our papers too. If we cannot find the photos then we will have to wait and get some taken. Trying not to panic (you don't want to be stuck in limbo with USCIS), we start looking through our folder of paperwork and find the two passport photos in a folder given to us by the CHI coordinator. With all the checking, and double checking by the CHI coordinators they had still manged to put the photos in the wrong folder. We hand the photos to the officer, put Lydia's fingerprint on a couple of papers and head through customs to the United desk.

At the United desk we ask about the flight and find that it's delayed, with a huge sense of relief we drop our bags at the baggage desk and head off to the next gate. The St. Louis flight is delayed from 7:10 to 8:35pm giving us time to sit, eat a bite from Starbucks (much more expensive than the one in Guangzhou) and get on the final home.

We arrive in St. Louis and Lydia gets a little overwhelmed with all the attention. She shows this by screaming - not exactly the way we had seen it happening but we're just happy to be home.

Playing in the baby changing room in Beijing

Ready to get on the long flight home.

Snoozing on her bà ba

Flying is easy... when you're asleep.

Finally Home...

We've been up for 32 hours but we're finally home. Lydia is in her crib asleep, we had to leave the light one as she doesn't like the room to be dark but we'll figure that out later. For now we're just hoping to get a few hours of sleep.

Lydia did great on the flights and slept for a lot of the time. When awake she spent her time eating, or trying her best to get the attention of the people around her. The homecoming in the airport was a little traumatic, I think too many people, too much attention all at the same time. We can't believe we've only had her for 11 days.

We couldn't wait to see Gabby again, although she seems to be so big now.

We had some drama in immigration and would have missed our flight if it wasn't delayed - one of the few times you're happy to have your flight delayed.

We'll be posting more in the next day or two but for now we have a mug of tea, Lydia is snoozing and we're spending time with Gabby... all is well with the world :)

Time to say goodbye...

Last day of a 5 star breakfast buffet.
Last trip to Shamian Island for shopping.
Last dinner of noodles and steamed buns.
Last time we make a sleepy phone call to our Gabby, she yawns because she is waking up, we yawn because it is time for bed.

Our bags are packed, our Lydia is bathed and sleeping, we are ready for our long journey home.
Excited to see family and friends, anxious to see Gabby and Lydia together at last, ready to hold both girls in our arms.

Just like that first flight that took Lydia out of Hunan, the joy is mixed with a bit of sadness that she is leaving her home country. Rob laughs at me that I am already talking about bringing the girls back for a homeland tour when they are older, but these last 5 years with Gabby flew by. Before we know it they will be young ladies who are curious about their heritage and we will be booking flights once again. But for now we are focusing on the trip ahead of us.

We were so lucky to have met so many amazing people on our trip to bring home Lydia. We wish everyone in our group safe travels home and look forward to seeing family pictures in the future.

Thanks to all our friends and family who sent messages and gave us that touch of home while we were away.

Thanks to Dawn and Kim for taking care of our smallest and furriest member of our family Brinkley....you have no idea what is in store for you!

Thanks to Steve, Kelley, Shannon, Denise, Kim, Larry and Jodie who helped keep our Gabby busy and entertained while we were away...and importantly gave Nana a much needed rest over the last two weeks.

Thanks to all of Kay's church and luncheon ladies for showing Gabby the high life while visiting Nana.

Thanks to the McCunes for holding down the home fort while Kay headed to her house with our gal.

Finally, many thanks to Mom for taking care of our precious Gabby....we can't wait to see you both!

See you on the other side of the pond....
Love,
Kara, Rob and our little Lydia

More Shopping and the Consulate Appointment

Today we took a taxi back to Shamian Island to do a little more shopping. We're been back and forth between our hotel and the island a few times now and using the taxi is pretty easy and only cost around 3 dollars. We managed to blow through the money we had exchanged in a couple of hours.

Before going back to our hotel we sneaked into the White Swan's play room. You need a hotel pass key to get in but there was someone in there so we just knocked and they let us in. We spent time in this room with Gabby and found that a few of the toys were still there. Lydia's favorite were the musical toys

At 2:30 we had out appointment at the American Consulate, this is when Lydia's visa paperwork is processed and we have to take an oath. The oath is part of the immigrant visa process and for adoptions the parents take it on behalf of the children. The oath basically says that all of the information provided by us is true and accurate. This time around was a little different from Gabby's adoption in that we had to go up to a window in the consulate and present our passports as a final check that we are the correct people and match the copies included with the submitted forms. It wasn't easy sitting in a big room with dozens of babies trying to pick out your child's name, especially when the first thing heard was a muffled 'Wa Wa Wa'... 'Wa Wa Wa'... turned out they were just testing the speakers and not calling for anyone but eventually they called Huai Xin Chun and we got the final 'okay' on our papers. A short time later everyone stood, repeated the oath and it was all over.

Tonight we also had the option of going on a Pearl River Dinner Cruise, and it was the perfect evening for the event. Our guide had already given us the heads up on the deal 'out of ten, the cruise would be a 10, the food around an 8' and that was a fairly accurate description. Lydia tried her best to eat all the noodles she could, and I tried my best not to end up wearing them. I pitied the people at the next table and Lydia was quite intent at staring at them with a face covered in noodles!

After dinner we went outside onto the third floor of the boat to view the scenery and enjoy the night. The whole thing lasted about 90 minutes and was just the right length to keep the little ones entertained before it was time to get back on the bus for our hotel.

Another busy day and Lydia was great through everything. As we get close to the end of our journey our thoughts turn to the long flight home - we're hoping that Lydia keeps up the great behaviour for the long day ahead.

In the taxi on the way to the Shamian Island.

Playing in the Swan room.

This place is fun!

Dinner cruise.

Enjoying an after-dinner cracker.