Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Couldn't resist this website "elfyourself" which puts your photo heads on dancing elf bodies. Cute and funny! It's at http://www.elfyourself.com.

Thanksgiving Pictures

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Roger's parents' house and had a lovely time. Naomi wore cute brown plaid overalls that Danny had worn at a much younger age. Somehow it worked as knickers on Naomi, and with the wide white collar and black shoes she looked vaguely pilgrimish. Mom and Dad had asked me to take a picture of the grandkids, and I gave it my best effort. It wasn't easy. Naomi squirmed and Danny looked sulky in nearly all the pictures, then he wouldn't move out of the way when I was photographing Anna and her kids. I decided to take an extra picture of just the stairs so I can photoshop Danny out of Anna's group! For his contrariness, Danny received a good tickle from his cousin Isaac. Roger and Danny enjoyed building some towers with the foam shape set Kandy gave to Naomi.

Catching up...

Here are some pictures from early November, including a visit to Roger's parents. One picture shows Naomi in action—she saw me packing for travel and got her rolling backpack and bear and she was ready to go! There are also pictures of Danny helping make the cranberry relish by turning the crank on the grinder. The berries made a funny little popping sound.

Pictures by Danny...

Taken with Danny's Fisher-Price digital camera. Naomi will sit on and/or climb on anything that is remotely sittable or climbable. She will also use any possible toy or object to stand on to try to reach something on a table or counter. She's always falling off things, but she gets right back on with few tears.

Halloween pics

For Halloween we carried on our yearly tradition of trick-or-treating with the family of Danny's best buddy Claire. Naomi wore Danny's old tiger costume and Danny was a train engineer once again, though the overalls and cap barely fit him this time. And yes, I (Ruth) was a leopard, wearing a fuzzy jumpsuit from a sidewalk sale. (Eat your heart out, Melissa! I have the comfy loungewear of envy!) Danny modeled a "silly happy face" for the pumpkin, although it obviously does not resemble him at all!

The girl's ready for a bike

At the home of some church friends, Naomi tried out all the little vehicles available. She was very, very happy there!

We're in the news (sort of)

We got the neighborhood paper and found we were in the front
page picture!

Credit where credit is due

I neglected to mention that the baptism photos in a previous post were all taken by our official family photographer, Melissa G., otherwise known to our children as Auntie M. I might as well say here too that she is also responsible for the family pictures gracing our Christmas cards for the last few years. I promised her this year I will include a credit line on our cards. (It is of course, very shameful that a graphic artist would forget to give credit when using another's artwork!) Melissa is a wonderful artist and photographer in her own right, as well as being a brilliant lawyer, generous friend and fabulous auntie. (I hope she won't hate me for embarrassing her this way.) I can't wait until Naomi comes to know and appreciate her the way Danny does. But hang on kids, remember she was MY friend first. Mello, I will resist the temptation to post certain photos of some of the fun times we have had together. (It all began with chin faces!) By the way, she also somehow managed to take this picture of herself with Danny.

Cool carnivorous plant

I was very surprised to see Venus Flytraps for sale in the grocery store, and couldn't resist getting one. They are smaller than I thought. I expected Roger to think I was silly for buying it, but he was totally into it. He caught a fly in our house and put it in the plastic container with the plant (it has a lid with small holes, but too small for this big ol' fly to get through). We saw the fly land on one of the traps, which snapped shut just as the fly got out. Danny was so excited to see that a plant could move like that! We missed the moment of capture, but could see the shadow of the fly inside when we held it up to the light. What a great science lesson! We also learned a lot of interesting things about the plant at http://science.howstuffworks.com/venus-flytrap.htm , including the fact that it will take the Venus Flytrap 5-12 days to digest that fly!

Naomi's Baptism

This is another after-the-fact entry. Naomi was baptised on 9/16 at our church. Roger's family was there, but mine couldn't make it due to distance. We dressed Naomi in a traditional Chinese outfit and shoes we got when we were in Guangzhou. I wore a beautiful silk vest from Inner Mongolia. When we stood up front, Naomi was cheerful and nodded to all the people while Pastor John was talking, which caused some chuckles. She cried briefly when John took her and placed water on her head. As we returned to our seats, we sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" which made me completely lose it and cry on my mother-in-law's shoulder, and then hug everybody around. I sang that song to Danny when he was born, and to Naomi when we got her in China. This is what we told Pastor John about the name we chose for our daughter:

Our daughter's full name is Naomi Chunxiang H. We kept our daughter's Chinese first name, Chunxiang (Shoon-she-ahng), as her middle name, to preserve a piece of her heritage. The name her birthparents gave is lost to us, but this name was chosen by the orphanage that received her in the spring of 2006 at about one month old. They gave her birthdate as March 1. Appropriately, Chunxiang means "welcome spring" or "fragrant spring."

We decided to call our daughter Naomi because we both liked the name (it is unique) and the more we thought about the meaning of the name, it seemed fitting. Also, Ruth liked the idea of having a Naomi in the family, since the two names are linked in scripture. In the Bible story, both Ruth and Naomi had become like orphans, with only each other to cling to. They needed a kinsman-redeemer to free them from their predicament, provide for them, and give them a family. We pray that Naomi will come to know Jesus as her kinsman-redeemer and experience all the blessings of being part of God's family. We also pray for God to show his grace and mercy to Naomi's birthparents and fosterparents, as well as those who cared for her in the government orphanage and the China Care Children's Home.

Autumn Moon Festival

Catching up on events from before surgery--The Autumn moon festival fell on the day before surgery, but we managed to celebrate a bit with mooncakes and paper lanterns and going out to look at the full moon. (We had fun going to Chinatown to buy the mooncakes and lanterns). The mooncakes were expensive and not really to our western tastes, but it was fun to try the different flavors and see the "moon" (egg yolk) inside them. We also did a little shadow puppet show a week later inspired by a book of Chinese festivals. For an explanation of the legends behind the holiday, go to http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/midfallstory.htm .

Cleft surgery is done

Here's a day-by-day account as written in email updates to family and friends:
TUESDAY 9/25 We report to CHOP at 6:15 tomorrow morning (Wednesday). Don't know what time the surgery will be, hopefully as early as possible. We won't be able to give Naomi ANYTHING to eat or drink in the morning. She will have three things done by three different surgeons: cleft repair, ear tubes, and a slight incision to open an eyelid more fully. She will stay in the hospital at least one night.

WEDNESDAY 9/26 Naomi's surgery lasted from 8 am to about 11 am. It took awhile for them to get her moved and settled in the recovery room, so we didn't see her until 12. She has been sleeping most of the afternoon, but is pretty unhappy when she wakes up. She only wants to sleep in our arms. All parts of the surgery went very well, but her lower face is quite swollen and she is unwilling to drink or eat yet due to the pain. She will be on the IV for awhile longer, and she is getting regular doses of Tylenol and Percoset. Ruth will stay with her overnight, and hopefully she can come home sometime tomorrow. (Once they see she is breathing well, drinking, and feeling generally comfortable.)

THURSDAY 9/27 Well, it looks like we'll be here another night. Naomi is healing well and has shown some of her usual spunk (especially this morning in the playroom), but she is still refusing to drink or eat and has a lot of discomfort in her mouth. She also really doesn't like the arm restraints. There have been a few small smiles today, but also a lot of whimpering and low energy. One nurse said that cleft palate patients have more discomfort than a lot of their other patients. But the surgeon said that by the weekend Naomi should be feeling a lot better. She was released from the IV this morning, but is back on it temporarily to rehydrate her. No one is worried about her progress at this point -- they say she will drink and eat when she is ready. We hope that time will come soon so we can get home. I didn't sleep much last night, but had a long nap in the room today so I am feeling okay.

FRIDAY 9/28 Naomi was released from the hospital at around 4:00 pm. We are so glad to be home, and Roger and I are feeling really beat. Thanks to Mom and Dad Hoover for caring for Danny for 3 days, doing laundry, preparing meals and being generally indispensable.

We were determined to get Naomi drinking and eating so we could come home, but she was a tough little customer. Around 10:30 am we got her to eat some applesauce and yogurt, but still no drinking. We tried all the drinks we could think of, in a bottle, cup, and spoon. By 2:00 pm we were desperate. I tried to think of something too good to refuse and it came to me -- a milkshake! Roger went to the McDonald's in the hospital and brought back vanilla and strawberry milkshakes. She still balked until we forced a good taste of it into her mouth. Then she was hooked. Seven ounces of milkshake later, and we got permission to go home!!

However we are still having trouble getting her to drink here at home -- please pray for that. Part of it is because she hates the arm restraints and having to let us totally feed her. She was very frustrated at supper, but Roger is very clever at distracting her and sneaking things into her mouth. I hope we won't have to keep making milkshakes. Below are a few pictures from our stay at CHOP. The doctors, nurses and facilities there are great and we are so thankful. Now it's time to flop into bed.

Summer fun photos

...Naomi with her cool shades...relaxing at a friend's pool...Danny and his best buddy Claire at the arboretum...