One month with Lottie

Where we started on April 21st.

Our happy girl, one month later!

First Week Home

We have survived our first week home!  The jet lag has worn off, Daddy is back at work, and we are settling into our routines.  The first week had many highs and lows as we all adjusted to our newest family member.  

Lottie has amazed us with her adjustment so far and we are so thankful for the mercy God has shown our family in this area.  She is sleeping really well, eating GREAT, and seems to be bonding with us a little more each day.  We (especially Mommy) were SO happy to have Daddy at home with us this week to spend time together as a family of five as we worked through the jet lag and got to know Miss Lottie more.

Abigail and Lottie immediately connected and both enjoyed playing together a lot.  Lottie loves watching her big sister and copying what she does. 

Tuesday of this past week we loaded up and headed to Birmingham for Lottie's first appointment at the International Adoption Clinic.  We are extremely grateful to live in close proximity to such an amazing clinic with specialists trained in treating internationally adopted children.  The kids did well on the way there and enjoyed spending some time with the Vestavia Hunsbergers on Tuesday night.      

First road trip!

Daddy with his three kids on their way to breakfast (drive thru...he was not that brave)

 Chad and I took Lottie to her appointments while Nana (who traveled to bham to help us) played all day with Abigail and Luke.  It was a LONG day (five hour appointment) but Lottie was a trooper through all of it.  She endured poking and prodding, an ultrasound, and a difficult blood draw where they had to fill 9 viles of blood! The appointment went well and was more of an information gathering appointment than anything else.  We expect to get a report with results of the tests in a few weeks and have a follow up appointment at the clinic in June.  Next stop on the medical front is an appointment at the Spina Bifida clinic associated with Children's Hospital in Birmingham to see several other specialists for assessment.  Please continue to pray for favorable outcomes in these assessments and wisdom for the doctors as they advise us on a plan for her immediate and long-term care.

This was immediately after the blood draw.  Sweaty and mad after fighting pretty hard.

She was WORN OUT after her appointment and slept almost four solid hours after we left the doctor.

Luke was a bit slower to warm up to Lottie this week.  Poor guy didn't have the benefit of understanding what was about to change in his life like Abigail did.  Not to mention, Mommy and Daddy had been gone for two weeks and returned with a little girl who likes to play with his toys and consumes his older sister's attention.  He reacted in a way extremely appropriate for a two year old and was pretty clingy and needy all week.  Thankfully, he never once acted out against Lottie or showed any aggression.  He just needed a lot of extra attention (another reason we were glad Daddy was home this week).  He made great strides this week and he and Lottie were even caught playing together a few times later in the week.  Little man loves his new sister, just needs extra prayers as he continues to adjust. 

Home Sweet Home!

We were more than ready to board a plane and head home after two weeks in China!  Our flight left Guangzhou at 10:00pm Friday night (China time) and we prayed Lottie would be ready to go to "bed" as soon as we got in the air.  The first leg was 12 1/2 hours to L.A. 

Fueling up for the long flight.

Settling in to our row on the plane.

Lottie did amazingly well on the flight to L.A. and ended up sleeping about 10 hours of the 12 1/2 hour flight!  She laid on the seat between us and woke up in time for breakfast a little while before we landed.  We had to clear customs and immigration in L.A. as Lottie became a U.S. citizen.  That all went smoothly and we explored the L.A. airport a while before our flight to Dallas.  (Celebrity sighting:  saw Leanne Rimes and she was very kind to stop and chat with us a minute!)  Lottie was pretty worked up as we boarded our flight to Dallas (which left L.A. at midnight) and we worried it might be a long three hours.  Fortunately, it was nap time in China so Lottie ended up settling down and sleeping most of the three hour flight to Dallas.  We were so thankful for a flight schedule that coincided with her bodies natural sleep times.  God is so good!  

We arrived early in the morning (4:45am) in Dallas to a virtually empty airport.  We strolled around for a while and played and colored to pass the time of our layover. 

Pretty soon, it was time to board our last flight headed to Jackson and we were SO excited!  Again, Lottie did really well on the plane and enjoyed looking through the SkyMall magazine.  After 29 hours of travel, we could not have been happier to land in Jackson right on time.  

We had quite the crew waiting on us at the airport to give us a very warm welcome home!

Big brother ready to see Mommy and Daddy!

Sweet girls from my GA class made signs to welcome us home.

The whole crew waiting patiently before we landed.

Finally, we were off the plane and got to see many of our friends and family who had supported us all along our journey to Lottie. 

One very important big sister was missing from the reunion at the airport because she had a special job to do that day.  Abigail was a flower girl in my cousin's wedding and have traveled out of town with Coach and Nana to participate in the wedding.  She was so excited about being a flower girl, and while we missed her at the airport, I am glad she was able to be a part of Travis and Whitney's wedding.  It worked out really well too because she was able to have her own special time meeting Lottie once she got home (Luke was already asleep) that was super sweet.  Lottie took to her right away and immediately wanted to sit in her lap.  Of course, sweet big sister thought this was the greatest thing ever!  

We were so happy to see our Abigail and even happier to finally have all five of us under the same roof!  God most definitely blessed us with smooth travel and a very sweet homecoming.  We are so very thankful!

When We Get Home...

As we get ready to come home and welcome Lottie into our family, we are thinking a lot about the people around us and how much our lives are going to change. We are so fortunate to have such loving and involved family and friends. We appreciate the support and excitement that you have all shown to us as we have made this journey. We’re thrilled about bringing Lottie home!

There are some things about parenting an internationally adopted child that are the same as parenting a biological child. There are also quite a few areas that are different. Lottie will need a specific type of environment and parenting when she first comes home in order to feel safe and secure and to learn how to live successfully in our family.

While we know that every child is different, we also understand that there are many possible things that will impact our daughter’s beliefs and behavior when she gets home. These include how much nurturing she received, if there was abuse or neglect, the amount and quality of food received, illnesses, the quality of care, and her unique temperament and personality. The result of these things can include behavioral issues, emotional disorders, and a sense of grief and loss from being separated from the only home and caregivers she has ever known. Adoption is a traumatic and scary event for any age child whether they are newborn or 10 years old. They’re being removed from all of their routines and familiar surroundings. Even babies will feel grief and sadness at an event like this. In order to help Lottie feel safe and learn that we are her parents, we are creating the type of environment that will help promote security during this stressful time.

When Lottie gets home, we need to implement specific parenting approaches to help encourage a strong, attached, emotionally healthy family member. Lottie needs to learn that we are her parents. She needs to feel nurtured and safe. She will not be used to having parents to love and care for her.

Lottie and I (Gloria) will be living a very quiet life with limited trips out and few visitors in for a little while. Social workers and psychologists tell us that when children are first adopted, they may be overwhelmed, scared, and nervous. By keeping our lives very boring at first, we’ll be helping Lottie feel safe. This does NOT mean that we do not want visitors coming to see our little one for the first time. We will just have to limit it a little so it is not overwhelming. I know a number of people are planning to meet us at the airport when we arrive home. That will be wonderful and touching for us to see so many familiar and supportive faces when we arrive. We just can’t pass Lottie around for everyone to hold and we will have to be mindful of overloading her with new things and people. We know you’ll all want to hug, kiss, and help spoil our new daughter, but it is recommended that we be the only ones to do that at first to improve her chances of attaching strongly to us. Until we feel Lottie has attached and clearly knows we are her parents, we will need to feed, change, and take care of her. I know that missing out on some diaper changes will disappoint many of you. Have no fear – there will be many more once she becomes comfortable at home! :)

As strange as it may seem, internationally adopted children who act very outgoing and affectionate with strangers is not a healthy thing. It is called “indiscriminate affection” and can mean that they haven’t really attached to anyone. It would not be a good sign that our daughter has attached to us if during her first months home she will let just anyone take her and hold her without searching for her mom or dad. We are so excited and can’t wait to bring our daughter home...things are just a little different when you are adopting a baby from an international orphanage rather than having a biological child. She will be adapting to a lot of new things…new parents, new family, new home, new foods, new time zone (totally opposite of what she’s used to). That’s a lot to swallow at one time.

We appreciate your understanding in reading this. More than anything, we ask that you pray for us – that Lottie would attach to us and adapt to her new surroundings quickly and smoothly! Thank you so much for your love and support during this exciting time!

Can't Wait to Be Home!

Today was a much better day! Praise the Lord, Lottie showed some improvement and seemed to be feeling a little better. We can tell the prayers and the medicine are working! She still didn't eat much throughout the day, but actually played some (which she hasn't really done since Sunday evening).

We headed to the U.S. Consulate this morning for our important appointment to gain her visa and clearance to enter the U.S. She did great at the appointment and everything went smoothly. They should have her visa ready tomorrow afternoon in time for us to head to the airport! We had a restful afternoon including naps and more walking around the hotel grounds (Lottie's favorite thing to do).

 

 

 

Our travel group includes two other Lifeline families and we have LOVED spending the week with them. We have formed some great friendships and are so thankful to be sharing this part of our journey with them. We all went out to dinner tonight to celebrate reaching the end of this adoption process! We enjoyed visiting together and sharing a table full of GREAT Chinese food. And guess who decided to eat some at dinner tonight?!?! Lottie surprised us by digging in on the green beans of all things! She could not get enough of them. We were happy to oblige by keeping her bowl full of them. She did not want anything else, but we were certainly pleased to see her eating again.

 

Our flight to L.A. leaves tomorrow night at 9:30pm. We have another connection to make in Dallas before heading into Jackson at 9:45am on Saturday morning. Pray for all three of us as we have about 26 hours of travel ahead of us. We can't wait to be HOME!!!

New Meds and More Prayers

Lottie is still sick. It has been a tough couple of days as she has refused to eat or drink very much at all. She slept great last night (12.5 hours) but woke up just as pitiful as the day before. She perked up just a little bit after eating a few small bites at breakfast and we even saw a couple of smiles throughout the morning. We had corresponded with the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham to let them know what was going on and seek their advice on what we should do. They suggested we start on a different antibiotic (we had already given her a dose of Zithromax) that would target a possible UTI. With Lottie's Spina Bifida, she is more prone to contracting a UTI. Thankfully, another family here with us had Amoxicillin that should help if it is in fact a UTI. She got her first dose of that this afternoon along with around the clock Tylenol to ward off her fever. Our only other option, because of the holiday going on here, was to take her to the Children's Hospital here. You can imagine that was not a comforting option for us as we need to do everything we can to make our Consulate appointment on Thursday and get her visa so we can travel home. Our guide here talked us through what they would most likely do at the hospital (take her temp, draw blood to test for infection, prescribe an antibiotic) so we felt good enough about trying the Amoxicillin before going that route. We are doing our best to keep her hydrated, offering her the bottle every couple of minutes trying to encourage her to drink. Thankfully, she did have three wet diapers throughout the day. She cried and fussed the majority of the day, but seemed to be comforted by snuggling up to one of us. We are fervently praying she will respond to the medicine and show some improvement tomorrow. We have our very important consulate appointment first thing tomorrow morning where we will submit her visa documents and attend an oath-taking ceremony. Once that is over, we simply wait for her visa to be processed by Friday afternoon so we can hop on a plane Friday night. Please pray specifically:

• that Lottie will respond well to the new antibiotic and begin improving
• for her fever to go away
• that Lottie will drink enough to stay hydrated
• for her appetite to return so she can regain her energy
• that everything will go smoothly at the consulate on Thursday
• that Lottie's fever or illness will not interfere at all with getting out of the country and through immigration
• for strength and patience for us as we care for her while she is so sick.