Adoption Day #2

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. Physically, Lia is doing really well recovering from her last surgery. She was off the pain meds completely by the following Monday (her surgery was on a Wed.). Unfortunately, the stress of the surgery and her hospital stay seems to have triggered some fears and sleeping issues that we weren't dealing with previously. We've been assured that these are completely age-appropriate behaviors and that they are typically brought on by stress in a child's life. Of course we tend to jump to the conclusion that any fears or behaviors she displays are adoption-related, but we also need to remember she is a toddler and often times toddlers go thru phases where they are afraid of the dark, or afraid of the window curtains, or afraid of the bathtub, (or in our case, all three of these at once!) But even now, those fears seem to subsiding with each day that passes, so we are hopeful that this is a short-lived phase she is going through. In the meantime, she is getting most of her sleep either in our bed with us, or on her little Mickey sofa that flips out into a small bed in our family room:

In other news, today was our court hearing to finalize the adoption in our state. In Washington, you only have to have custody of the child for six months in order to finalize, so after our six month post-placement, we decided to file the paperwork and finalize. The judge was so kind and he, our attorney, and the court clerk were all smitten with our girl. They closed the courtroom to just us and afterwards we took some photos for Lia's scrapbook. 

HOORAY!

Happy Birthday, Happy Mother's Day, and Get Well Soon...

Wow...busy week! Today is Mother's Day. My first "official" one. Last year I had been matched with Lia, but had not yet traveled to get her, so it was bittersweet. The four years prior to that were even more depressing as I waited...and waited...and waited...for a match. There is a lot of "hype" around Mother's Day, and I've received a lot of congratulatory messages from friends and family which is lovely, but the fact of the matter is while I am so happy Lia is in my life and I feel so blessed to have her call me mama...I can't help but think of her birthmother and the terrible decision she had to make, that ultimately led me to my daughter. I pray that somehow she is at peace with her decision and that her heart somehow "knows" that her sweet baby girl is in good hands and receiving the care she could not provide for her.

Speaking of which, thank you to everyone who held us in your thoughts and prayers this week as Lia underwent palate surgery #2. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, and she was rolled back to surgery just before 9 am (I cried, but she didn't thanks to the drugs they gave her beforehand). Around 11:15 we got the news that she was out of surgery and in the recovery room. Unlike last time, she was still asleep for a good hour in the recovery room...we hoped this was due to the change in her not getting morphine, which seemed to have caused a lot of extra anxiety (to put it mildly) last time. Unfortunately, she still had a very rough time coming back out of the anesthesia. Our poor girl screamed and fought everyone - us, the nurses, and pretty much the entire world for about 2 hours. Around 2 pm she finally started calming down. There was a lot more blood this time too. Not to be graphic, but rather than the blood running down the back of her throat like it did last time, this time more of the surgery was up at the front of her mouth, just behind her teeth, therefore a lot more blood ran out of her mouth - for hours. It was pretty traumatic for her and for us.We spent the night and all day Thursday (my birthday) at the hospital as well. She slept most of Thursday with one or the other of us holding her...

Lucky for us, her surgeon happened to be the on-call ENT at the hospital that night, so he popped in to check on her around 9 pm and decided she was in good enough shape to go home. So after signing all the release papers and a visit to the 24 hr pharmacy across town, we got home around midnight.

Since being home she has been perking up a bit more each day. She's still not eating much and can only eat very soft or pureed foods for the next couple of weeks. She's on several meds, so we did have one Mother's Day vomiting episode this morning (lucky for me she was sitting on daddy's lap at the time!) But other than that, she's been fairly chipper, and wearing her arm restraints without too much fuss. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers as she continues to heal. Our hope is that this surgery "takes" and that we won't have to go back again for several years.