Time Flies

On Monday night I was shocked when I was glancing at my e-mails and saw one from my friend Hollie that referenced how it had been a month since we picked up our children from the House of Hope. Wow. Has it really been a month already? "Time Flies" -- I haven't said that phrase too often during our past 1 1/2 year wait, but right now the time is just flying by.

Things are going really good at our house. Other than the first week of me being sick, jet lagged, and overwhelmed -- we are doing great! We have really been enjoying the beautiful weather with bike riding to/from school each day, dinners at parks, jumping on the trampoline, and watching the boys play t-ball. We are really enjoying being a family of five and it doesn't overwhelm us at all. Allie is a great baby and sleeps 12 hours a night and takes two great naps each day. No matter what time we put her down to sleep, she doesn't make a noise. My family came into town and she had to take a few naps in her stroller because we were out and about during nap time -- no problem for Allie.

Playing at the park with cousin Chloe during a t-ball game

I do not grieve for the first 8 months of her life that I missed. I do have so many more questions and I wish I could sit down with her grandfather again, but I don't feel like I've missed out. 9 months is a great age. She talks and smiles all of the time. She has also learned how to say "dada" and "mama". She is so close to crawling, and she loves to stand up. The bonding process has gone better than expected -- both ways. I really can't say anything negative about our transition from being a family of four to a family of five. We are really enjoying it. As for the boys, they still enjoy having Allie around and they have never complained about her at all.

My family just visited from Indiana for 8 days. Below are a few pictures from their trip:

Grandma & Grandpa Allen with Alemitu
They could not believe the improvements (especially regarding leg strength) that she has made since they first saw her in Washington D.C.

Calvin running to home plate
During soccer, Calvin really enjoyed himself but he wasn't aggressive. A smile was always on his face and that's all that mattered. With t-ball, Calvin tries to go after each ball. He had a really great catch when he was pitcher's helper. He is really into t-ball and it is great to watch him so passionate about a sport he plays. Wes really loves t-ball too.
Grandpa Fischer is their coach.

Cousin Chloe & Allie in matching rompers

Wes, Calvin, and Cousin Carter at the Sea Life Aquarium

Adam and Calvin on a roller coaster at Castles & Coasters

Calvin going down a slide at Rustler's Rooste Restaurant
(say that 3 times fast)

Alemitu & Cousin Sydney

Trampoline Static vs. Cousin Carter's hair Trampoline wins every time

Wes playing in the fountains at Westgate
Wes told us this week that he will have ZERO kids when he gets married because "big guys" (Wes' term for adults) can't have kids AFTER they get married. Hmm I think we need to explain a few things in the near future. Calvin said he will have 100 kids.

Tattoos Wes asked Adam how a tattoo on a "big guy" doesn't wash off. So Adam took the opportunity to explain exactly how a tattoo is done. Wes, Calvin, and Sydney have all said that will never get a tattoo.

Spring Break

The boys are on spring break this week and we are having fun! On Sunday Grandma and Grandpa Fischer took them up near Sedona to Out of Africa. It is a safari type zoo and we went with them a few years ago. The boys had a blast and even brought along their own cameras to take some pictures.


We've been mostly hanging around home the past few days. Wes was determined to stay up past midnight. He failed the first two nights. He even told his brother than they can't watch movies at night because that makes them fall asleep too early. Wes and Calvin finally managed to stay up until 1 a.m. with the help from Daddy and the Wii. I was fast asleep.


Today we went to the Wildlife World Zoo which is just about 5-10 minutes from our house. They have expanded it and added an aquarium. The boys had to study each and every fish no matter how small or big. Allie had a great time looking at the fish but fell fast asleep after lunch so she missed the big animals. The zoo added a log ride and all 3 boys had fun going down it.

The kids acting like monkeys!

Allie loves to blow raspberries.

All those days staring at a computer finally caught
up with Adam and he had to get glasses.

Tonight the boys have t-ball practice and they are spending the night with grandma and grandpa. It has been a great week. I am not overwhelmed at all and we are settling in to a great schedule.

This morning Allie woke up with 2 little bottom teeth! She has been drooling a lot lately, chewing on everything, and yesterday she was more tired than normal. She loves to cover her teeth with her tongue so views of them are really hard to get, but I sort of got a shot today at lunch. Look closely and you can barely see those two little white things in her mouth.


Speaking of Alemitu, Dr. Spiekerman himself called us the other day. It made me nervous when I heard his voice and not his assistant's but it was all great news. Allie's hip x-ray came back normal and he'll re-evaluate her in 3 months. Her blood/stool labs came back normal except for some small inflammation in her stomach or intestines. Dr. Spiekerman assumes that is from parasites, but he had already prescribed medication for that as a precaution anyway. She is finished taking antibiotics for the chest infection and she no longer is coughing much or having a runny nose. Dr. Spiekerman told me that she is a very healthy little girl!!

In fact, she loves to bear weight on her legs now! In January, she wouldn't do it at all. We have been practicing with her the past few weeks. At first she would only last a couple of seconds and hated it. Now she loves doing it. I think she is building those leg muscles pretty quickly!

Adjusting

We have completed our first week as a family of five and it went really well! Allie has adjusted wonderfully -- much faster than we expected. She sleeps about 12 hours each night without waking up (beginning at 8:30 p.m.). This allows me to take the boys to school in the morning by 8 a.m. and get back just in time to clean up from breakfast, start a load of laundry, and then wake up Ms. Allie. She also takes two 1 1/2 naps each day at 10:30 and 3:30. She is a happy little girl and she is really starting to attach to Adam too. This weekend has been great bonding time for them and today she reached out and cried for him to hold her (while I was holding her). It was wonderful!

We also saw another great sign tonight when Grandpa Fischer was playing with her a little while she was in her high chair. After a few minutes she started fussing and held up her arms for me. I wasn't standing right there or anything, Jim was. One day she will cry for grandpa but it was awesome that even with someone right in front of her, she was crying for me. That is great, great progress!!

The hard part about the bonding process is the fact that she wants us all of the time. This week, even though she adjusted perfectly, and I was getting more sleep than ever -- I was overwhelmed. Honestly, I broke down a few times on Friday. I was exhausted. I felt like I couldn't get anything done. I didn't know how to carry a load of laundry up the stairs with her too. I didn't know how to fix myself lunch or breakfast when I had to tend to her the whole time. BY CHOICE, since I work part-time, I have always been adamant about cleaning the inside of the house, taking care of all of the yard work, doing the business and personal finances, as well as working a part-time job. This is my CHOICE and Adam steps in whenever I ask him too. However, this week I was completely overwhelmed and not understanding how I could do any of those tasks let alone all of them. I was putting so much pressure on myself.

However on Saturday I woke up with so much energy. It finally occurred to me that just because I stopped puking early Tuesday a.m. didn't mean that my body just got back to normal immediately. I'm dealing with jet lag and getting over 3 days of some sort of stomach flu/food poisoning. I was trying to ignore those things and just try to jump back into my normal life. And what has my normal life looked like pre-Allie? It is busy, busy, busy - not with obligations, just with "stuff". Ever since the boys started full-time kindergarten I have "busied" myself every minute that they are at school. I missed them terribly and that is how I coped. I don't sleep much when I have anxiety, but for the past 9 months I stopped sleeping to the point that Adam told me I needed to go to the doctor to be treated for insomnia. In January when I left Allie the first time I made myself even busier to the point that an outsider probably thought I was on crack. :-) Before we left to pick her up I couldn't even sit down and watch one of my tv shows because I thought I had no time and I wouldn't be able to concentrate on it because I'm sure there were some baseboards that needed polishing. My house and yard had never looked better, but I now realize I was doing all of this to avoid emotions.

So Saturday when I woke up feeling refreshed I started processing the past 9 months of my life. I realized that all of my "busying" isn't necessary. I am not trying to meet deadlines for work. I don't have to do all of this stuff. I was simply coping. I need to slow down. I need to enjoy this. And that's what I did this weekend. We had a great time bonding with Allie and I got some laundry done too! No baseboards were cleaned and yet my life didn't fall apart because of it. :-) I actually read some of my book this morning while Allie played on the floor by me. I would read a little, play with her a little, read a little, etc. Reading is my glass of wine. I miss it! As for sleep, that hasn't been an issue since we got home from Ethiopia. I'm sleeping 7-8 hours a night now without any help from Tylenol PM. Amazing!

We've also had so much fun as a family this week. We've gone to the park a few times, had a picnic one night, went bike riding, went to the mall, spent some time with family (including Adam's cousin and cousin's girlfriend (Damon & Amanda) who drove here from Indiana), and the boys also started t-ball practice. It is nice to be able to stop and enjoy life right now. I'm not waiting for my little girl to get here. Our family is complete . . . for now! Ha! Things are going better than we had hoped for. We are so happy!

Allie kissing cousin Chloe

P.S. No word on Allie's test results yet.

Doctor Visit

On Saturday what I thought was bad food from Texas Roadhouse was more likely a bug of some sort from Ethiopia. We had some questionable fruit and Ethiopian airport food right before we left. I spent the past two days either having food go right through me or throwing it all up. It left me tired and achy and it was pretty rough yesterday. Last night Adam sent me to our bedroom in the evening and he took care of the kids. I fell asleep at 7 p.m. I was up several times throughout the night with cramping, but I woke up this morning feeling great and ready to start my day fresh and get some things done! We were going to go to a quick doctor's appointment for Allie in the morning and I was going to work in the afternoon. Those plans went completely down the drain and we spent the day at the doctor's office and at several different lab facilities. I should first thank my wonderful clients who let me reschedule them at the last minute for Wednesday and Friday instead!!

We arrived at the pediatrician's office at 10:15 and didn't leave until 2 hours later. We love Dr. Spiekerman!- We started going to him when the boys were 7 or 8 months old (we didn't like their first doctor). He is a straight shooter, and he is also very proactive. He evaluated Allie today and then asked if he could step outside and think about her case a little and then come back in with a plan. His office was right outside our room and we heard him discussing her case with someone the entire time. It was well worth the 2 hour visit! (We also heard him go into the other rooms to apologize to the other waiting patients . . . oops.)

To sum it up, he is happy with her status as an internationally adopted child. She cried while he examined her and he was thrilled with that. He kept saying that she must have been in a good place that cared for her because she knows to cry to let you know that she is unhappy with something. A lot of kids from orphanages don't cry anymore because they have learned it does no good. He kept saying how happy he was about that. He also said her head size is large (even though her body is tiny) which is a good thing and shows that she had adequate nutrition in the womb and after birth. She weighs 15 pounds which is what she weighed in January.

Good news: he doesn't think she has a tumor at all, he thinks it is a capillary hemangioma -- which is essentially exactly what we had originally thought (a strawberry birthmark), thanks to my niece Chloe having one like it. So I feel much better about that.

Another "minor" concern we had was her flexibility in her legs. The girl is a contortionist! I thought this was normal for all infants. Within minutes of being back in the hotel room and I was changing her diaper (during our layover in D.C.), my mom said, 'I think her leg is dislocated" because she could move it so high up. My dad couldn't believe the way she moved her feet and ankles. Hmm. So I guess this isn't normal, but we just thought maybe it was because she doesn't have a lot of muscle mass in her legs from being in a crib so long. In fact, she didn't put any pressure on her legs to stand in January. She does a little now and I work with her on it several times a day.

We thought this was minor but decided to bring it up. This was Dr. Spiekerman's major concern. He rattled off things like it possibly being spina bifida or a tethered spinal cord. It shocked me for a minute but then I realize that it doesn't even matter. We'll deal with whatever cards we are dealt, and I wasn't concerned. Towards the end of the visit he did rule out spina bifida but we still had to get an x-ray for possible hip dysplacia. He did also confirm that there is a chance it is just low muscle mass from being in a crib.

Our major concern was her cough. She has had a nasty cough since we saw her in January. Her medical records from October said she had an upper respiratory blockage and was treated for that. Dr. Spiekerman couldn't hear anything wrong in her chest and thought it was just post nasal drip, but he did order a chest x-ray to confirm this. Very quickly after the x-ray was finished, Dr. Spiekerman's office called Adam to tell him that they did find an infection in her lungs and they called in a prescription. So we feel much better because we knew that it was more than post nasal drip.

Dr. Spiekerman also ordered 11 different blood tests and 6 stool tests. So after 2 hours at his office, we went to get both of her x-rays done, and then we went to get the blood tests. Unfortunately her veins are so tiny they had difficulty getting blood to flow. So after poking her in each arm (oh yeah, did I mention that Dr. Spiekerman's office gave her a few shots too), we were told that they only could get 2 of the 11 blood tests. So we were sent to the Phoenix office to see a specialist for drawing children's blood.

We rush to pick the boys up from school and then head out to Phoenix. After seeing the band-aids on her legs from the shots and the wraps on her arms from getting the blood drawn, the specialist was really hesitant about poking her again. However, we had blood with us that will expire if we wait until the morning. So we go back to the blood drawing room, Allie screams her head off some more, no blood comes out, the guy feels horrible, and in the end we go home with no more blood drawn. He suggested we load her up with liquids tomorrow and then come back on Thursday. Dr. Spiekerman's office agreed.

So we spent the entire day dealing with her medical issues and we still aren't done. I feel so bad for her! I must say that I wasn't prepared to have such little medical background information. When filling out the new patient forms, I had to leave huge sections blank with big question marks over the entire section. The nurse kept asking me questions and all I could say was "I don't know". She finally said, "I don't mean to embarrass you mom, I just have to ask. I understand you probably don't know this stuff." That was just something I wasn't prepared for and it made me sad that I knew so little.

All in all, I'm so happy with her visit with Dr. Spiekerman. I'm not even anxious to get the hip x-rays back. I love her know matter what her physical condition is, and God has been in control this entire time.

After all of that we made a trip to the mall so Adam could buy a new laptop for his business. The boys (all 3) love going to the Apple Store, and they also love to eat at the food court. Okay, and we did promise the boys a tiny toy at the Disney store for going to Phoenix with us and getting Allie's blood drawn. Wes thinks the Disney store is 'Disneyland' so one day he may tell you that he goes to Disneyland a lot.

So we all headed to the mall. The good news is that Alemitu loves her car seat as long as I'm not visible. Same with the stroller. If she can't see me, she is happy in the seat and she sleeps most of the time. Wes asked if he could push the stroller for Allie's first ride in a stroller. He definitely felt like a big kid with a big responsibility. He and Calvin had so much fun pushing her all over the mall. It is so cute to see how they interact with her. Wes has always been my little cuddle bug, so I am making sure that he understands he is still my cuddle bug. He loves watching Allie and asking questions, but he doesn't really want to hold her or touch her yet. Calvin is all about Allie. He loves playing with her, holding her, touching her, etc. The boys are adjusting great and they told me this morning that they love having Allie home. Calvin likes to call her 'Alemitu' rather than "Allie".




We ended the day with all five of us in our bed playing with Allie. It is so nice to have her home. I realize this is completely random, but because I do this blog mostly for my own memories I must add this next part. The boys just asked if they could have a snack. They both wanted a Rice Krispee treat. Calvin asked for a "Frisbee treat" and Wes asked for a "Christmas Tree". I love that they still mess up their words sometimes!!! Adam and I got a good laugh out of it.

Pictures from our DC arrival

Pictures from our Phoenix arrival

Adam's Ethiopian friend, Tekabe, wrote this sign for Alemitu.

Wes giving Alemitu the stuffed animal he bought for her.

We are home!

Right now I am typing this blog post as I lay in my bed. To my left on the floor are my two boys laying on their "slumber party mattresses" while they watch a movie. By my feet is my cat, Steve Russell. To my right is Adam who has the monitor so that we can view our baby girl fast asleep in her crib. When my boys fall asleep, I'll head into Allie's room and sleep in there the rest of the night. In this very moment, I am right where I am suppose to be. There is a great peace in our house and overwhelming love and excitement for our new beginning.

Our day today was great. We were able to get a row together on our long flight (thanks to the ticket counter lady loving my hair). Allie slept well in the beginning and then cat napped the rest of the flight and throughout the day today. We actually got in quite a bit earlier than expected because we picked up a tailwind. My parents met us at the airport and took us back to their hotel (it was like a little suite) so that we could rest, Allie could play, and we could eat some breakfast. Adam was able to get a good nap.

For lunch we went to Texas Roadhouse as we were starving for some good American food. Our stomachs were not ready and we have been paying for it ever since. :-(

I mentioned before that my mom had upgraded us to First Class on our flight from DC to Phoenix. This was my first time in first class and I was making a big deal about it. She told me not to take pictures of all the great fixtures, etc. Basically "don't act like a hill jack". So what did we do? We took silly pictures and text them to my mom before the flight took off. The caption read "Whoo-whee! We got us some first class seats."

Our 5 hour flight to Phoenix was wonderful. Allie and I slept the ENTIRE way home. Adam slept most of the way home. It was bliss. Sherree, Jim, the boys, and some friends came to greet us at the airport. (Jim, you can post pictures from your camera.) We were so touched. The boys were a little shy around Alemitu but they started getting more interested in her on the car ride home. I can't wait until tomorrow when we can all play together.

The airport did lose our luggage, but they said a lot of people from our first flight had lost luggage. We re-checked it when we got to DC so we at least know it made it that far. I hope to get it because of the souvenirs, but honestly, those are just things. I have the most important "luggage" with me.

We didn't know how Allie would do going to bed. Her scheduled is completely messed up and she slept so hard on the flight to Phoenix. With a little music and back patting from Daddy, she was fast asleep in her crib in no time. Our baby girl is finally home.

This has been an incredible journey and we couldn't have done it without the support, prayers, and love from all of you! We were so touched my parents drove to DC to meet us. We are also so very grateful for Jim & Sherree to take care of our children during both trips. Adam and I are blessed with great parents who are even better grandparents. We can't thank you enough!