Happy Halloween (from Princess Lia Ladybug)...

All dressed up and ready to go...

At the mall...where do we start?

Strolling the mall for treats

Look at all my candy!

Look mama, a pumpkin sticker!

Not taking her eyes off Spiderman...

By the third floor, getting tired. Riding in style...

Homeward bound, playing peek-a-boo with her tu-tu...

Ready to go to the neighbors' house with Daddy

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Checking Out Great!

Lia had her 2 year old well-check at our family doctor this morning. It was about 10 days early, but with so many doctor appointments on our schedule these days, this is when we could make it work. Our doctor was very pleased in the amount of growth and developmental milestones Lia has reached since she'd last seen her five weeks ago. We've now been home from China two months - I can't believe how fast the time is flying by! While at the doctor's office, Lia decided to try her hand at sitting in the doctor's chair and pretending to enter notes (don't worry - the keyboard was locked):

Lia is now off all of her narcotic pain meds. We are only giving her ibuprofen as needed about once a day. She doesn't seem to be in pain at all, and getting her off the narcotics has helped her get back to her normal napping and sleeping schedule (thank goodness!) She is still wearing the "no-no's" (arm restraints) when she is eating and sleeping, but more and more we are allowing her to go without them while we are in the room watching her. Luckily, she is not big on sticking things (other than food) in her mouth, so all is well during playtime.

She is still LOVING everything "pumpkin" right now. Daddy brought her some pumpkin balloons to the hospital last week, and now she has one in her bedroom and one in the playroom that she enjoys carrying around:

Although we are expecting rain here on Sunday, Steve is planning to take her trick-or-treating in her Ladybug Princess outfit, at least around our neighborhood. She can't eat the candy (more for mom and dad!) and she can't say "trick-or-treat", but I know the neighbors will still enjoy seeing her. Particularly those who visited our garage fundraiser sale this summer prior to the China trip. This week Lia also got her first letter in the mail (from Grandma & Grandpa):

In other news, Lia's friend Jack is still waiting for a family... I received this updated photo of Jack from the Starfish Foster Home Halloween photoshoot this week. Isn't he darling?

As mentioned previously on this blog, Jack has spina bifida and is paralyzed from the waist down, but he gets around well in his wheelchair, and he is one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet. Jack's favorite song is "Happy Birthday"and his is coming up next week - he will turn 3. A forever family would be the best present Jack could ever ask for!  Additionally, WACAP is currently offering a $4,200 grant to help with the costs related to Jack's adoption. Click HERE for more info.

Post-Op Week 1

Lia is doing so amazingly well considering all she went thru last Wed./Thurs. I am so proud of her. She is so brave and so strong!  She hasn't seemed to be in much pain from the surgery, though she is quite bruised from the thrashing that resulted from her reaction to the morphine. We are trying to stay ahead on the pain meds so that she doesn't experience much pain. We have yet to sleep through the night. She usually wakes up at some point around 2 or 3 a.m. needing additional pain meds, and then she fights going back to sleep. So we've had some loooooong nights since the surgery. Hopefully that will get better as time goes on and she is in less pain.

She is fed up with the arm restraints ("no-no's") and we are trying to give her frequent breaks from them when we can be near her and watch her carefully. I feel bad that she has to wear them to sleep, but we don't want to take any chances that she might put her hands in her mouth.

She is also not thrilled with her choice of entrees for food since surgery. Everything we offer her has to be liquid, pureed, or very, very soft (not requiring any chewing). She's eating lots of vitamin-fortified puddings, yogurts, cream of wheat, as well as pureed soups, rice & beans, noodles, etc. But she keeps taking us to the pantry where her crackers and crunchy snacks are usually kept - just in case we might change our minds and give her something from there...  :)

In general she is being a CHAMP about taking all of her medications...everyday she has to take an antibiotic, painkillers, and ear drops at least 2x each - and for the most part she is being great about it (especially when daddy administers the medicine!)  Here are a few more pics from the past week:

Daddy and Lia resting at the hospital

Mama holding Lia at the hospital

Lia figuring out the "no-no's" 

Five days post-surgery...just hanging out!

Home Sweet Home

...with "no-no's" on her arms to protect her mouth (from her hands!)  So far, so good. She is napping away...and hopefully soon - I will be too.  Thanks again for all the support - our friends and family (and cyber friends too!) are the best...

Brief Recovery Update...

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers the past 24 hrs. Lia is doing much better this morning. They took her off morphine around 7 pm last night and switched her over to Dilaudid which helped her nap more throughout the night (on and off). Around 5 am we started to see her personality coming back and she took some water from a syringe and swallowed it... This morning at 8 she was drinking smoothies and gogurts and the doctors are really pleased. We should be able to get her off the IV and headed home today - HOORAY!

More once we are home...

Rough Day...

UGH. Tough, tough day...found out our girl has a bad reaction to morphine as well as anesthesia...hoping the next painkiller will help (minus the violent, thrashing tantrums)... Our cleft coordinator stopped by to see us this afternoon and said she's never seen a child have such a violent reaction to recovery meds. ...I don't know who has cried more today - me or Lia!   :( 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day...

Halloween Decorations - Surgery Week!

This weekend we had a lot of fun decorating the house for Halloween with Lia. She is starting to really mimic our words and actions now...her favorite word? "Pumpkin!" (although, I have to admit, with her cleft, it currently comes out sounding more like "Un-In") - but we know what she means. She will find photos of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in magazines, advertisements, and on TV - and point and say "Pumpkin!"

On recent trips to local area stores, we were afraid she might be scared of the spooky Halloween decorations, but she is loving it all. In fact, she likes the super spooky costumes and pictures of - skulls, ghosts, jesters, etc.  So we decided to go ahead and decorate the house as we usually do at Halloween. Yesterday Steve put up the lights and hung the "friendly ghost" from our front porch arbor. Then he carved our big pumpkin with a "Terra Cotta Warrior" face - it turned out so cool! 

Lia watching thru the screen door as daddy carves our pumpkin...

Our front walkway...spooky!

Our Terra Cotta Warrior Pumpkin (good job Steve!)

Thursday we had Lia's pre-op appointment with her ENT/Plastic Surgeon. We are a GO for her palate surgery this Wednesday and have to be at the hospital at 7 am. 

Playing with the magna-doodle at the doctor's office

Please say a prayer that everything goes smoothly for Lia during surgery and also during her recovery. I know it will be hard for her to keep her hands out of her mouth, and not be able to feed herself, and only have a liquid diet for a few weeks... Our goal is to get her drinking liquids as soon as possible following surgery, so that we don't have to stay in the hospital for too long. We'll try to keep the blog and Facebook updated as we can on Wednesday!

Prepping for Surgery Week...

It now looks like Lia's palate surgery WILL happen next week. She has been cleared by all the doctors, and we have our final pre-op appointment with her ENT/Surgeon this Thursday. So we've been working hard to get her completely off her bottle (as she won't be allowed to put anything - including a rubber nipple - into her mouth for a few days following surgery). It will be an all liquid/puree diet for awhile. We're working on getting her to drink from a "big kid" sippy cup that only has an indent or hole (like a commuter mug) rather than any kind of nipple or spout that would go into her mouth. She doesn't love it, and she spills - a lot - but we are starting to see her drink from it more and more.

I know she is a tough little cookie who will get thru this just fine, and I am trying my hardest not to stress about it. Interesting that - after four years of working in a children's hospital - I now find myself in the position of BEING one of those parents in the waiting room... I have complete confidence in her surgeon and the children's hospital staff.  However, I do feel like we JUST got her home and finally settled into a "routine" (of sorts) and now we are going to put her through this trauma - even though I know it is for the best. It's still tough...

Anyway - we had a great weekend. My parents and sister came to town and stayed with us for a couple days. Everyone had a great time playing with Lia. On Saturday night, after Lia was in bed, we watched the documentary "Babies" on DVD. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. There are so many cute and funny moments - and the soundtrack is great!

Here are some pics from the last few days:

Riding her Kai-Lan car...

Learning to color...

Having a giggle with Aunt Tracy...

Going shirtless with sunglasses (on a rainy, 50-degree day) LOL!

Finally - Happy Anniversary to us! 

Steve and I met four years ago this weekend.

Here's to many more happy years ahead...

She's a Nut!!!

So many people ask me each week - how is your daughter doing? And my first response tends to be, "She's a nut!" People always look at me quizzically after that, but I mean it in the best of ways - she's a goofball - and she's letting us see her true personality more and more now...a few pics from the last few days to share:

She's still obsessed with walking around in my shoes...

...and sleeping in the dog's bed...

...and wearing her food...(more chocolate pudding please!)

at tea parties with her dolls...

and of course, sitting in her doll's stroller whenever possible...

See what I mean? The kid is a NUT...and we LOVE her with all our hearts!

A Plea for Jack - October Begins

Shortly after we were matched with Lia, we found out (through an amazing red thread which I can relate in a different post) that Lia was living at the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'an, where she was known as "Sophia". Due to confidentiality rules with my agency, I was unable to share this wonderful news with my readers here until we had Lia in our arms. But now that she is home, I definitely want to spread the great news about Starfish far and wide - they need our support! This is a non-profit organization that is literally changing children's lives one by one. But my post about Starfish is for another day...today I want to talk about Jack.

Jack was one of Lia's best friends at Starfish. Jack is an (almost) 3 yr old little boy who was born with Spina Bifida, and is paralyzed from the waist down - but Jack does not let that stop him from being an amazing, generous, sweet little soul. He gets around wonderfully in a little wheelchair that was donated to Starfish specifically for him. When Lia left Starfish to be brought to us, Jack continued to save part of his food for her, in case she might come back hungry...THAT is the kind of kid Jack is. Every day I pray for the children at Starfish, but I especially pray for Jack. I so want this sweet boy's family to find him. He has been on the China "shared list" for over a year now... I'm sure the words "spina bifida" are scaring families away, but if they could see Jack and get to know him, see how well he gets around and what an amazing kid he is, I know families would be fighting over who gets to make him their son! Jack has seen many of his friends come and go from Starfish, yet he always remains. Now he is one of the oldest kids there. Do YOU know someone who could be Jack's forever family? Some of the families who have adopted children from Starfish are working together to raise awareness and offset some of Jack's adoption fees. See the left sidebar of this blog, or click HERE to learn more about Jack and how you can help!

Meanwhile, here are some Lia pics from this week:

Holding court with all her ladybug toys

Trying on her ladybug costume for the first time - she loves it!

Even a ladybug princess needs some down time...

Gotta love those beautiful long eyelashes!

Happy Harvest Everybody!