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.

Asking for Prayers

Monday and Tuesday were sightseeing and shopping days here in Guangzhou. Monday we went to a local park . It is a holiday this week in China (Mon-Wed) so there are a lot more people out and about then on a normal day. The park was crowded with people enjoying the outdoors. We saw groups line dancing and many others playing Chinese hacky-sack. We also stopped by a mall for the first of two shopping excursions here in Guangzhou. It was at this stop that we realized Lottie did not seem to be feeling well. She became pretty irritable and fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. We put her down for a nap hoping it was just exhaustion and that she would wake up feeling better.

 

Lottie continued to feel bad throughout the rest of the day and started running a fever after her nap. She was pretty fussy the rest of the night and REFUSED to take any medicine. We tried every trick we knew to get some Tylenol in her system but, as we saw at the medical appointment, Lottie is a fighter!

At breakfast Tuesday morning, we attempted to hide medicine in her normal breakfast porridge, in yogurt, in a spoonful of jelly, and in some baby food. NOTHING WORKED! She did not have much of an appetite and refused to eat all of those things we tried hiding her medicine in. Can we say stubborn!!! We think we got just a tiny bit of Tylenol in her system Tuesday morning and headed off to the Guangzhou zoo with another family. Lottie loves to ride in her stroller and it is the only thing that seemed to calm her down throughout the day, so we decided walking around the zoo might be better than her fussing in the hotel room all morning. She did well at the zoo and was content as long as she was moving. The zoo was crowded, but we were able to see most of the animals and enjoyed just walking around some. We made sure to say, "Roll Tide," to the elephant and, "BOOOOO," to the tigers.
 

 

 
Lottie continued to feel bad throughout the day and ran fever off and on all day too. You can tell she is missing that little sparkle in her eyes in the pictures we took today and we definitely didn't get any smiles out of her. She cried and fussed all day and was not able to nap very well either. She hasn't had an appetite all day, but has at least been drinking water and pedialyte regularly. We went ahead and started her on an antibiotic we brought with us to hopefully knock out any infection she might be fighting. With all of her symptoms, I am wondering if it is her ears bothering her. We will press on with the antibiotic and tylenol again tomorrow and pray our sweet girl comes back out!

I can't even describe to you how we have had to get her to take any medicine. It is quite the circus. She does NOT like it to say the least! Let's just say Chad has had his fingers bitten hard several times as he is prying her mouth open while I squirt some medicine in her mouth and wait for her to swallow.

Please pray that she will begin to feel better. Pray she will sleep well, eat better, and have relief from whatever may be bothering her. Pray also for us as we care for a sick, fussy baby we can't communicate with. We know the Great Physician and pray He will get all the glory in her improvement.

Day of Rest

Today was a very restful day allowing us to catch up from such a crazy weekend.  With no appointments this morning, we decided to let Lottie sleep in as long as she needed.  We ended up having to wake her after all at 9:00am so we could make it down to breakfast!  We walked to China's version of Wal-Mart with the other Lifeline families for things we needed and grabbed lunch on our way home.  Lottie LOVES riding around in her stroller checking everything out.  Our only scheduled outing today was a dinner cruise down the Pearl River.  We boarded the boat and enjoyed dinner with our friends before heading up to the top floor to check out all the sights.  The city was so pretty all lit up and the weather was perfect for enjoying the cruise.  Our guide, who has taken dozens of Lifeline families on this same cruise, gave us the heads up to head back downstairs for a "show."  There was a clown with balloons for the kiddos juggling and doing other tricks.  She had our little ones mesmerized and put on a pretty good show for us all.

 

Medical Exam and New Friends!

Saturday was a tougher day for us.  As part of the clearance process for her visa, Lottie had to have a medical exam.  Our group headed to the appointment Saturday morning after breakfast.  The doctors and nurses checked her ears, mouth, and eyes.  Then they took her clothes off and looked over her body comparing it to the notes in her medical file given to us at her referral back in November.  They asked us to identify what we knew her special needs to be and asked us a few other questions about her condition.  They weighed and measured her and saved the worst part for last.  Any child over the age of 2 has to have a TB test for their visa clearance.  Lottie met that by one day!  They do a blood draw to test for TB and make you send your child into the room without you.  Leaving us for a room full of strangers was already pretty scary for Lottie, then they have to take blood on top of that.  She entered the room with two nurses and a few minutes later one came out and got three more nurses to join them.  We could hear her screaming and obviously giving them fits trying to get her blood!  Our little 17 pound Lottie was putting up a BIG fight!  They finally finished and brought her back to us.  She was just exhausted from fighting and thankfully relaxed pretty quickly once she was back with us.

 

The rest of the day was actually very pleasant, and we were glad to have the medical appointment behind us.  We toured an area of Guangzhou that has been totally transformed and remodeled over the last ten years.  When Guangzhou got the bid to host the 2010 Asia Games, they began a HUGE building project to accommodate the games and created a really nice area right in the center of town.  We saw the opera house, the stadium, and the tallest TV tower in the world.

 

After a good afternoon nap for Lottie, we spent the rest of our day exploring our hotel and making new friends.  Lifeline has put us up in a beautiful hotel that is the nicest place we have EVER stayed.  It is in a great area with many places within walking distance to enjoy.  We are also blessed to be spending this second week in China with two other Lifeline families wrapping up their adoptions.  The touring and appointments we have this week will be done as a group and it has been refreshing to be with other like-minded families.