Thus the medical journey begins...

Naomi had her first medical appointment today, with our pediatrician. She had to have 4 shots, a blood draw and a TB test, the poor kid. She cried and yelled, but recovered very quickly and was soon playing. However after her nap she was tired and cranky, and perhaps slightly feverish. She is sleeping well so far tonight. Over the weekend it is my job to collect stool samples -- oh joy. And I must use a complicated device in her diaper to collect urine. I also need to try to flush some wax out of her ears so the doctor can get a better look in them on Monday. She says many cleft palate babies (in this country) automatically have ear tubes inserted due to chronic ear infections.

To explain why we are doing all this, many doctors agree that internationally adopted children should be tested for a wide range of problems and their immunizations should be done over again, due to unreliability of information and questionable quality of medicine given to orphans overseas. So we must start from scratch.

This will be a summer of many medical appointments, as we strive to catch her up on all the infant care she would normally have gotten from birth, and as we get her cleft palate evaluated. We will take her to a specialist from the craniofacial team at CHOP on 6/25. I don't know when they will want to do her palate surgery, but it could be soon. Our pediatrician has also recommended we take her to CHOP doctors to check her eyesight and hearing. In case you are wondering, she has been covered by our health insurance from the moment she was given to us.

I just hope we can keep our heads clear when all the specialists gather around and pour lots of medical-speak into our ears about what needs to be done for Naomi. I also want to set up an appointment for Early Intervention services for her, particularly to help her with speech issues after she heals from her surgery. What a blessing that Naomi seems to be a generally happy and resilient child. I guess she has had to be a survivor.

We would appreciate everyone's prayers for all the issues above, and also for us to give proper attention to Danny's needs in all of our busyness. Thank you.

Oops, pictures here for the previous post

I accidently hit return too soon...

I also included a photo of us waiting for our ride at the airport. I told Cheryl to look for me in a Mongolian princess hat. I figured she would recognize a Mongolian hat since she has been to Mongolia!

Still blogging, but not sleeping much

It turns out this blogging is kind of fun, so I'm not quite ready to stop. We are still having rough nights, since Naomi wakes many times in the night, and we all wake way too early due to the jet lag. Danny has had circles under his eyes for many days. (See the picture of him falling asleep eating a cookie.) I am contemplating moving the crib right next to our bed, since Naomi seems acutely aware whether I am near her or not. She slept better in China without being right next to us, so I have hopes things will improve. There are just so many new things for her to get used to here. I know many have had success with putting the baby right in bed with them, but I also know this will guarantee Roger and I will not sleep. I need my undisturbed space in the bed to sleep peacefully! Maybe this is due to too many years of singleness, I don't know.

In the daytime, Naomi is happy most of the time and takes good naps. She makes a lot of happy noises and is very social. She has charmed the neighbors. She "talks" to us all day as she explores the house. The baby gates are all installed now, which makes our lives easier. We are enjoying the help of Mom and Dad H. for several days, and we are thankful to Anna for hosting them and for sending over a yummy cassarole today. (Joanne B. brought us some wonderful pork barbeque yesterday.) See a picture of the beautiful sweater and hat Anna knitted.

I have included pictures of an unusual toilet from the Tokyo airport. Tokyo seems like the right location for such a high-tech gadget, don't you think? The only button I dared try was the flushing sound, which really does make a prerecorded flushing noise. I gather the function of this is to cover the other noises you might make there. Sorry for the bathroom humor.

Settling in

We must give credit where it is due: thank you to Miriam and Isaac who helped Anna with cleaning our kitchen and stocking the fridge. It was so great to have fresh food today.

Several young gentlemen commented on the photo of Danny with his dinosaur model -- yes it really does glow in the dark (not Danny, the dino)! Danny would be happy to demonstrate sometime.

We are settling in. We've realized that the souvenirs we bought could have filled a large suitcase by themselves! Roger is working on getting the baby gates installed, as one of Naomi's favorite things is climbing stairs. It's raining a lot here. We discovered our back roof gutter was clogged by the leak appearing on the ceiling edge of Naomi's room. But the clearing of that gutter caused us to discover that the basement door drain was also clogged, resulting in a wet basement floor. Roger has had to work harder than expected today. Hope we will all sleep well tonight. Last night was not so good for all of us except Danny. I feel better now, thanks partly to two naps today. Thank you Miriam and Dee for playing with Danny. Thank you Laurel and Joel for the delicious dinner. Danny was so happy to see Claire though it was brief.

A few family and friends have been introduced to Naomi today, but she has been fairly shy -- not typical for her I think. So much strangeness for her to adjust to, not to mention the time difference. We are trying to keep things low key for her. We look forward to seeing Mom and Dad H. tomorrow.

Home Again

We made it. Our travel went quite smoothly. Naomi and Danny slept a lot, though we didn't. We have decided that 26 hours in airports and airplanes is really too much. Don't want to fly again for quite awhile. The kids are asleep now, and we are delirious, so we are off to bed. Thanks to the Brubakers who kept our car and picked us up at the airport (picture is courtesy of Cheryl). Thank you also to the CVC crew that decorated our porch, to Anna who cleaned our kitchen and stocked the fridge and to Laurel who is organizing meals. We feel loved.

Last Day in China

This will be very brief, since we must get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to get to the airport, and I promised Roger I'd get back to our room by 10 pm. We can't believe it's our last day here! We'd love to see more of China, but are longing to get home. One thing I must say is that we owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to my (Ruth's) mom, who has provided invaluable help to us here and added fun to our trip. It's been great to share this experience with her, and there are countless things that would have been much harder or impossible for us to do without her help. We will miss her a lot when we must go our separate ways in Minneapolis.

Today was pretty quiet. The only organized activity was some group pictures (see one of all the moms and adopted kids in our Bethany group). We also did some shopping and went to the pool, as you can see. We are sad to miss the wonderful buffet breakfast tomorrow morning, but it will be better for our waistlines to return our usual austere oatmeal and cereal. I think I must have gained weight on this trip between the great breakfasts and the stress eating! We can't wait to get settled with Naomi in our own home, and will look forward to gradually introducing her to all of you. Thanks again for your wonderful prayers and support. This has been the trip of a lifetime, and we get to bring the sweetest treasure of China home with us!