Court date

For those of you who are still checking in with us... We got an email from the agency on Thursday night that our court case is scheduled to be heard on June 12th in Ethiopia. So far every case our agency has been able to present has been approved so we are hoping to get through on the first try as well. They did have two cases though that did not get heard on the original date- hopefully that won't happen to us. If we get through court successfully she is legally our child. Once the agency gets her passport, adoption decree and (I think) birth certificate from the courts we can make travel arrangements. There have only been 2 groups of families in front of us so timing is still hard to know but the documents will be issued about 2 weeks after our court date and they will want us in Ethiopia about 2 weeks after that. We are hoping to stop for a few days in Europe on the way to Ethiopia but with the tight timetable- we aren't sure it will be do-able (or at least do-able for an amount of money we can live with)

Normally, once a case is through court, the family can post photos. I think our agency will make us wait until they have the documents. Once we can post, we are hoping to link this blog to a new blog for the baby. I am currently looking at private hosting companies for the new blog. Blogger (we have been told) is blocked in Ethiopia and internet connections will be dicey, slow and (gasp!) dial up. In the best of circumstances a bad combination. If we have to go through a "back door" to post (like we did in Beijing) the blog will likely be unusable. We are looking at our options now but rest assured- the plan is to blog during our trip.

More info to follow soon

It's Another Girl

Several weeks ago B. and I accepted the referral of a baby girl currently waiting for us in Ethiopia. She is currently 5 months old and unfortunately, due to Ethiopian law, we are not allowed to post any photos of her until she is legally our child. We are currently waiting for a court date in Ethiopia. We are hoping for a date at the end of May, but more likely June. Once our case goes to court, provided nothing unforseen happens, she will be our daughter. I am checking my email 100 times a day just in case we have a date scheduled but so far we are still waiting for the Ministry in Ethiopia to assign us a date. Stay tuned- we will keep you posted.

A year in review...

It is hard to believe that we are coming up on a year since D was placed in our arms and clearly I am a big slacker since the last post was from a LOOOOONG while ago. So here it is... a year in review

August 2007-she realizes at the state fair that fair food is the best food there is.




She also really enjoys the pool- she has been a water baby since the first trip to the pool in China



October 2007- There is something about apple and pumpkin picking when it is 95 degrees outside that is just totally wrong!





CUTEST BABY EVER ALERT- check out the adorable Halloween costume (also once she realized trick or treat was all about the candy- she was hooked)





December 2007. Things we learned-
Christmas cookies, GOOD
Presents, GOOD,
Santa, BAD







New Years Eve- 'Nuf said



February 2008- D gets her first haircut before Chinese New Year.
The kids performed in the local FCC Chinese New Celebration. It was beyond cute to see about 25 little Chinese girls (and X.) dancing and jumping around the stage. I would post more photos but there are other kids in them and I don't want to post someone's else's child without their permission- so imagine 25 girls as cute as D and you get an idea- Now stick X. posing in the middle of everyone and you can imagine what it was like.





March 2008
The "It Wasn't a Blizzard" Blizzard of 2008
(apparently 22 inches of snow in a 24 hour period does not necessarily mean you have had a blizzard- who knew??)




We also had Easter in March this year. Things we learned. Finding Eggs, GOOD, Painting Eggs, GOOD, Eating Candy, GOOD, the Easter Bunny, BAD (But not as bad as Santa)








And of course, most importantly in March, D turned TWO!!! (although honestly, she thinks she has been 2 for about 6 months now and has acted accordingly)





So there it is- our year in review. Hopefully, the next update won't take 6 months to do.

Post Op Visit

D had her post op visit today with the cleft team. Her plastic surgeon was very happy at how everything is healing-everything is healing evenly and she has no fistulas at all. She still has a small cleft at the gum line (as planned) and they will fix that when they do the bone graft in 5-6 years or so. It means that occasionally food will still come out her nose :) I am not sure how this will affect her teeth as they come in- she only has one on that side and it is a little crooked already. Time will tell. The ENT thought her tubes looked great on one side but the other side is closed with a blood clot. They think it will dissolve with another course of meds. We take her back in a month. She passed her hearing screening so at least one ear has normal hearing. Based on how they give the test they can't say for sure that both ears have normal hearing but this is still much better than the results of her pre surgery testing. When she is older they will be able to do a more comprehensive test to ensure there are no problems in either ear. She is done for 6 months, when the team will check her again, with a focus on what services she needs for speech and language (maybe nothing, maybe surgery, maybe therapy..... they can't tell until begins (or attempts) to speak English). The only bad news is that they did not let her out of the arm restraints early- but as of Friday morning she is restraint free and allowed to eat what she wants

We are home from the hospital

We are home and things are going as well as can be expected. The surgery took 2 hours but both the plastic surgeon and the ENT thought everything went great. She cried off and on all night long except for an hour between 3 and 4 am, where she was strangely tranquil, but wide awake. We watched reruns of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (you can't be picky at 3am) She was refusing to eat so it looked like we would be staying a second night when she finally started to eat at lunch this afternoon. We forced her to have a little juice for a snack so they would let us leave and as we were getting ready to go there was a tornado warning for our county so they wouldn't let us leave and gathered all the patients in the hallways. They brought her dinner as we waited out the storm and she did eat a bunch of that so I felt better about bringing her home. Once home, she perked up and actually ate some mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. The hard part is with her arm restraints. She is a finger sucker at bedtime and it is so pathetic watching her try to figure out a way to get those fingers in her mouth. Provided everything heals well, she will be released from the restriants in 3 weeks and is finished with surgery until she is 4 or 5.

Surgery Day

D's surgery is scheduled for noon today. We have to be there at 10am and hopefully whatever we have to do for those 2 hours will keep her mind off the fact that she hasn't been allowed to have food since midnight and nothing at all since 8am. Pray that everything goes well for her and we have a quick and easy recovery. I am a little concerned about 3 weeks of arm restraints....

I am going to try to update the blog from the hospital (assuming there is a usable connection- it's probably too much to hope for wi fi in the room, huh?)

Look Who's Walking

In the last 2 weeks D has learned how to walk!!! It was interesting watching her learn to do it. A and X never really "learned" to walk, they both didn't walk and then they did. D has been wobbling around for days. She looks like she is trying to stand on the deck of a ship. One step forward, two backward. It is amazing to watch the drive to accomplish her goal. She falls over and over, but continues to get up and keep going. She is now the proud owner of a pair of stride rite sandals and tennis shoes. (Girls shoes are so much cuter too)
We have been busy doing all the summer things but are beginning to shift gears back to "school mode" I have a grant for work that I have finally begun work on so that is keeping me busy. We meet with D's surgeon next week so hopefully everything will still be on target after talking with him.

Here are a few photos of the Walking Girl