Has it really been four weeks??

Hi Everyone--

Life has just been a blur since we got back to Athens... After my mom and grandma left last week, we launched into "let's catch up on activities" mode. We had our first soccer practice for Emmy's team last Thursday, and Roger and I (as co-coaches) met our new parents and kids while Britti and Chelsea watched Ellie near the field. On Friday, Emmy's Brownie troop came over for a meeting, and the girls LOVED playing with Ellie-Kate. We had another soccer practice on Saturday morning and then went to the Farmer's Market and then a fundraiser for Chelsea's high school band. Ellie-Kate enjoyed the spaghetti, and many people from the community enjoyed meeting her :)

We got to go to church for the first time since our trip on Sunday morning, and Ellie-Kate met so many of the wonderful people who have been praying for us and for her. Although she was a bit cautious with all of the new faces, Ellie did great during the service. She actually fell asleep during the last song during praise and worship time and then slept for the entire sermon. It was such a blessing to be able to be back in God's house, connecting with my church family, and hearing God's word.

After church, we dropped Chelsea at tennis practice and then headed home to set up for the 4-H meeting. Our house was packed with kids and their parents, and, again, everyone seemed to enjoy meeting Ellie-Kate in person for the first time. Although our lives are usually in such a frenzy, we intentionally kept Ellie-Kate home without distractions for nearly two weeks; however, this past week-end provided her with a "sneak peek" at the many activities and people that flavor our lives so richly.

Today has been blessedly peaceful and home-bound, though, and, as I glanced at the calendar, I realized that we officially welcomed Ellie-Kate into our family four weeks ago today. I can't imagine our world without her. She is such a neat little person, and she really fits into our family so well. In fact, one of Emmy's friends even commented on how much that Ellie-Kate looks like Emmy :) Indeed, her nose and mouth are shaped just like the rest of the girls. A "coincidence"? I think not! I'm also amazed by how much that Ellie-Kate constitutes a really neat combination of the other girls' personality attributes and behaviors. As soon as she gets in the car, she starts to yawn, and, before long, she's out... just like Britti. She loves to laugh, perform, and figure out how things work... just like Chelsea, and, just like Emmy, she loves to play, and she protests when she has to drop the soccer ball and head to another activity :)

Just like the rest of the family, she's determined, focused, passionate, intellectually curious, and eager to move rather than sit. She set her current record for standing today at 15 seconds, and she yearns to dash around the living room without holding on to anything. Ever since we got home, she has developed physically, and she's now crawling around the room. She's using her leg muscles, and we hope to get a good report from the orthopedic doctor at our appointment on Thursday. Even without formal physical therapy (we start that process on Monday), we witness daily progress. God is truly good!!

Ellie-Kate is continuing to develop her linguistic abilities, and her vocabulary is expanding daily as well. She knows how to say and use appropriately "more," "Coco" (one of the dogs), "uh oh," "bye bye," "ball," "no no" (as she interacts with the dog), and, increasingly, "thank you." She does say "mama" and "dada," but we're still not convinced that she's directing the word to us as opposed to just making noise. We're also using some sign language, and we know that her special word for all food is "nana." However, the coolest form of communication that we have is when we lock eyes, imitate each other, and burst out in joyful laughter. Yes, God is good :)

It's hard to believe that we've had her for only four weeks AND that we've been home now for two weeks. We're still playing catch up in so many areas of our lives. We still haven't gone through (much less handed out!) most of our souvenirs; the many photographs that we downloaded and ordered from Walmart remain in their envelopes, and we've yet to really look at them. Although we're both on leave now, Roger has some sabbatical stuff to do, and I am finishing up loose ends from the CSCA conference and working with a few students on independent studies. Chelsea's been busy with Cinderella rehearsal, and she has four performances of the show this next week-end. All of the older girls are also in rehearsal for their annual dance recital which will be next week-end. However, on the plus side, we've been prioritizing precious time with the baby and the girls and their activities, even though some other things just don't get finished as quickly or effectively as we might have otherwise preferred. We're getting there :)

We're also "getting there" with Ellie-Kate's health. We should receive the final lab reports by the end of this week, and she has her opthamologist and orthopedic appointments on Thursday. She also has to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist because she has considerable hardened ear wax in both of her ears. The audiologist couldn't even get a reading on her right ear. We have that ENT appointment scheduled for May 13. Although she keeps tugging at her ears, we're just going to have to be patient and pray that her ears will be okay and that she doesn't have an underlying infection.

We are also in the process of getting an appointment with pediatric dermatology at Children's to examine the marks on her body. We want to make sure that we do what we can for her to avoid permanent scarring. We're not sure what caused the marks, but, in the meantime, we're lotioning them and praying that the dermatologist can help us. (We know that Emmy's doctor is on maternity leave, though, so it may be a good while before we can get this appointment.)

Well, that's the update for now. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support!! Also, we've been told that the blog has been a good experience, and we're certainly open to sharing our story with others. Feel free to share our blog address with others in your life who might be interested. We want to give God the glory for this great thing that He has done in our lives, and we are happy for people to read about our journey with Ellie-Kate.

I'll post again on Thursday or Friday with more news from the medical visits. In the meantime, take care and know that we truly appreciate your concern for us!!

Christie

Pictures with the Grandmas!

Quick Update

Hi Everyone--

My grandma is doing very well. She's still quite weak, but I think that she'll be strong enough to head back to Indiana with my mom tomorrow morning. I am so grateful that she was able to bounce back from her infection so that she could enjoy some special time with Ellie-Kate. Tonight, we celebrated Ellie's first Christmas and first birthday by opening gifts from the grandmas. We discovered that she LOVES to play "stack" with cups (and that Emmy still has a fondness for link toys). One of the coolest things about having a baby in the house again is that we all get to play with baby toys, watch the Wiggles and Pooh, eat baby food (ok, that's something that the girls like to do but that I can live without!), and sing silly songs without too many people thinking that we're really odd. Fortunately, Ellie-Kate thinks that our general silliness is just fine, and, for now, that's all that matters :)

More soon--

Christie

Family Portraits!

Pictures from St. Louis!

Medical Updates

Hi Everyone--

Just a quick update on our various medical situations... Grandma continued to decline over the week-end so we took her to the doctor on Saturday afternoon. She was diagnosed with a mild heart attack and a severe urinary tract infection. She was transferred from the hospital in Athens to a hospital in Columbus and admitted to the Cardiac ICU. Blessedly, the staff was able to address the heart issue quickly as well as start her on some high power IV antibiotics. She was doing so much better this afternoon that the doctor decided to release her. She's resting at our house now, and her and Mom will travel home on Wednesday.

Ellie-Kate and I went up to Columbus to meet with professionals at Children's. Things went much more quietly and smoothly today, mostly b/c they weren't touching her :) We don't have all of the test results back, but the x-rays and preliminary blood work look great. Blessedly, we won't likely need surgery, but we'll confirm that initial report with the orthopedic specialist next week.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support!!

Christie

Rough day...

Hi Everyone--

Yesterday was a really rough day... We took Ellie-Kate up to Nationwide Children's Hospital's International Adoption Clinic for the first in a series of comprehensive examinations. The staff was great--very professional and caring. However, Ellie DID NOT like being picked and prodded by complete strangers. On the "good news" front, the doctors observed that Ellie's reactions really attested to the strength of her bond with us. Yet, the poor child was just miserable as they did a general exam and as we visited with the nutritionist and physical therapist and then went for x-rays and blood work. We were just drained by the time that we crawled out of the door.

We need to go back up on Monday morning to get the results of the tests and to meet with the audiologist and developmental psychologist. We have appointments set up with the opthamologist, cardiologist, and orthopedic specialist for other dates. Based on what we heard on Friday, Ellie-Kate's hips will not likely require surgery, but the indentation for her spinal biffida may indicate some stretching of the spinal cord which might necessitate surgical repair. The doctor also *thought* that she heard a heart murmur, but, to be honest, Ellie was screaming so loudly that we could all barely hear ourselves think.

When we got back to Athens, we discovered that my grandma (who came over to Ohio with my mom to visit on Thursday) wasn't feeling well at all. She's 92 and pretty frail so it was a big concern that she refused to eat all day.

Please be in prayer about Ellie's test results and for my grandma. The x-ray report will indicate how much that the poor baby will have to endure with future medical treatments.

We're still going to get pictures up soon from our time in St. Louis as well as pics of Ellie's room here. Sorry for the delay, but Britti's been busy with catching up on grad school stuff, and we've been scrambling to get our house back in order and ready for for visitors. We'll get there.

Also, if you're one of the many people to send e-mails or Facebook messages, please know that I truly, truly appreciate all of the kind words. I promise to get caught up on responding ASAP!!!

Thanks for all of the love and support, and we wish everyone a very happy Easter!!

Christie

Settling in :)

We're finally starting to feel like ourselves a bit more. We're getting caught up on sleep and starting to settle into a routine. Ellie-Kate is sleeping through the night, and she loves playing with her new toys, laughing at our dogs (and Chelsea), and being carried around the house by Mommy and Daddy. Her first English words are "more" (yes, as in "more food") and "uh oh" (even when she sure seems to throw bottles on the floor with enthusiasm!). She does say "mama" and "dada," but we're not always sure that the names are connected with us quite yet. However, on the plus side, she definitely recognizes us as her parents, and she hesitates to go to or communicate with people beyond our family. We know that our bonding is proceeding well, and that knowledge comes as a huge relief, especially given all of our reading and preparation prior to our journey to China. Christie's mom and grandma are set to arrive anytime now, and they'll be here through Easter week-end, and it will be fun to introduce the new grand-baby to them :)

On another note, as most of our readers know, Ellie-Kate came into our lives as a special needs baby. She has been diagnosed with spinal biffida occulta, heart problems, and dislocated hips. Fortunately, the spinal biffida occulta *should* not cause any problems, and we've been told that the hole in her heart has healed. (We don't have any medical reports to back up that claim, though, so we're definitely going to have it checked out.) Although Ellie tries very hard to be mobile, we can tell that she has little control over her right leg so we're pretty sure that the hip on that leg remains dislocated.

Tomorrow, we drive to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus for an appointment in their international adoption clinic. We are truly blessed to have such a tremendous resource so close to our home (only an hour and a half away). Ellie-Kate will be checked out from head to toe, and we hope to get some preliminary answers to questions about marks on her skin that remain unexplained as of yet as well as about possible treatments for her hip and/or heart. We already know that we have to return to Children's on Monday, April 13, for a follow-up appointment, and we're pretty sure that we will be facing subsequent consults with pediatric neurologists, cardiologists, and orthopedic specialists, given her various health conditions.

Please pray that our visit will go well, that we'll get some valuable information, and that the doctors will be able to recommend effective yet minimally- invasive treatments. Ellie-Kate is doing so well, and we hesitate to introduce trauma into her little life, but we know that she is already a few months beyond the ideal time frame for treating her legs. We'll definitely post an update as soon as we know what we're facing in terms of medical treatments.

We'll post pics from St. Louis and from here at home as soon as we can. We've been scrambling to get settled and, for the girls, to get caught up on school and other commitments. We'll do our best to get them up ASAP.

Happy Easter!!

Christie and Roger

FINALLY, back home!!!

Hi Everyone--

We're FINALLY back in Athens!!!!!!! Although I heard very kind comments about the conference, it was an absolute blur, made even more so by our struggles to adjust to the new time zone and massive jet lag. In fact, this post marks the very first time that I have even touched a computer since leaving Guanghzou. We juggled the conference, parenting, and sleep deprivation to the best of our ability, but it left no time for anything else.

We finally got home late on Sunday evening. Praise God that we made it!!! We had a "direct" flight from St. Louis to Columbus, with only one stop. Well, the "stop" turned out to be Chicago-Midway, not Cincinnati as we had anticipated. (Thus, it wasn't even really on the way.) During our trip, the turbulence tossed our plane around, even dropping it around 20-30 feet at times. Items flew around the plane, and coffee pots even flew off and landed on the flight attendants. It was really intense. Emmy and I cuddled and prayed as Roger hung on to Ellie-Kate. (We still didn't have our car seat with us.) God provided for us, and we landed safely, but our plane suffered structural damage, and we needed to get another plane in Chicago to continue our flight to Columbus. As I told Emmy, I didn't like the turbulence, but I was more scared by the ground transportation in China!!! One flight attendant said that she had been flying for 20 years, and it was the third worst turbulence that she had ever encountered. WOW!! Anyway, given all of the trouble, we arrived back home around two hours later than expected.

We walked in to find very eager dogs waiting to see us as well as a very sweet sign and bouquet of balloons from our house sitter, Lindsey. Ellie-Kate laughed at the dogs, widened her eyes at her new "princess" bedroom, and ate a late supper. (Yes, Ellie-Kate managed to sleep through all of the turbulence as well as her first car seat ride home to Athens so she missed supper.)

It was so nice to be home yesterday, but, boy, we sure felt out of sorts. We had no food in our house; we didn't know where anything was in our bags, and we had massive laundry to do. Coupled with getting Ellie-Kate oriented to our house and her new toys, we were scrambling! We did get a lot unpacked, cycled through lots of laundry, and processed our huge stack of waiting mail. (We received a lot in nearly three weeks!!) We accomplished much, but we were fighting exhaustion all day long. We fell asleep early last night, missing the championship game and "one shining moment" for the first time since we've been married.

Ellie just woke up, and I need to care for her. Thanks again for all of your prayers and support, and I promise to post more pictures later today from the last leg of our journey.

Praise God that we're home!!

Christie

St. Louis!!

Hi, everyone!

This is Britti-- we just wanted to let everyone know that we had a safe trip to St. Louis and we'll be updating more fully after we get some sleep :).