Feeling Better

Leaving the hospital on Baba's shoulder

Allison's surgery was a little over two weeks ago, and she is doing so well.  We are pleased with the care she is receiving from the team at VCU.  On the day of surgery, Allison was not kept waiting long at all before she was taken into the operating room.  Tommy and I were anticipating a 2.5-3 hour procedure, but it took 5!  The doctors were pleased with the outcome and explained that it all just took longer than expected.  Her tonsils are out, ear tubes are in, and her teeth are doing so much better!  She had 4 teeth that had to be removed and now has five stainless steel pediatric crowns. Allison loves these and calls them her braces!  I think she views them as jewelry for her mouth.  The week following surgery had some ups and downs. Allison proved to us during this time that she is one tough cookie.  Even when we knew she was in pain or running a fever, she complained very little.  She did get a bit tired of the soft food diet that she had to stay on for two weeks but even made it through that.  She was so excited to have pizza and chicken this weekend.  Thank you to everyone for your support and kind messages while we made it through our first procedure with Allison.  Once she settled in and fell asleep on the day of surgery, Tommy and I looked at her and felt pretty amazing about what we were able to do for our girl.

 

Allison loves her new boots!

A new Elsa dress with a blonde wig
helped with recovery!

Meow!

Real earrings!

3 Months Home

Family of 5 at Farmer's Inn

Allison has been home with us for a little over three months now.  The time has gone by so quickly, and I have intended time and again to update the blog.  As a result of my time away, we have a lot to share and much of this post will be pictures. Summer was amazing but fleeting (as always).  We were able to share with Allison so many things that were new to her.  We enjoyed time at Busch Gardens, Water Country, and the beach.  Our best times were spent introducing her to family and friends while visiting Pennsylvania in August.  Allison loved every minute of this trip and enjoyed all of the attention she received.

Allison has also begun to face new challenges.  She has started kindergarten, and we are so grateful for her amazing teacher, Mrs. George.  She is clearly committed to helping Allison have the most successful year possible.  We are also grateful that Allison is happy and willing to go off to school each day on the big yellow bus.  It helps that we have four neighbor girls looking out for her.  She is continuing to adjust to the expectations of school and is learning how to cope with being surrounded by a number of other students who speak fluent English.  Someday we will be able to look back and chuckle that she colored her fingers and toes with her highlighter, had a bit too much fun with her scissors, and thought her classmates lunches were a buffet.  Until then, we are taking it one day at a time and focusing on the positives.

In five days Allison will have her first surgery since joining our family.  She is having her ENORMOUS tonsils removed, tubes put in her ears, and extensive dental work done.  Please keep her (and Mama, Baba, & her brothers) in your thoughts and prayers.  We are hopeful that she will have a comfortable and speedy recovery.

Time with Nai Nai and Grandpa

Nai Nai and Grandpa at the Deer Farm

Cousin Time at the Farmer's Inn

Great-Grandpa Gatesman

 Great-Grandma Gatesman

Great-Grandpa O'Neill

Fun in the Mud
      in Cook Forest

 

Courtney's Birthday Party

Family of 5

We have three kids!  I've said those words to Tommy many times over the past few weeks, usually as if it's the first I've noticed.  In fact we joke that through all of our training videos, conference calls, and meetings we were never told that part, that we'd be parents to THREE kids!

We want to share with everyone a short video Tommy made the moment we met Allison.  Please forgive the poor quality.  If it had been left to me, I wouldn't have remembered to even turn on the camera!

Click here for Gotcha Day video!

Allison has been home for just over three weeks, and we all feel like she has always been a part of our lives. It's as though she was always meant for our family, but it took five years for us to get everyone under one roof.  Our household is busier than ever, as you can imagine.  We thought we were busy with the boys! Allison is such a happy, energetic, bright little girl.  She is eager to learn and experience everything.  We have begun to truly see her personality.  She is strong-willed for sure and thinks it is already her full-time job to keep her brothers under control as she sees fit.  They don't always seem to agree.  With that said, Ethan and Aiden have far surpassed our expectations with their little sister.  The typical sibling dynamic has fallen into place, and you'd think that they've been together her whole life.

Aiden, Allison, Ethan

Our 3

We have so many things we could share about Allison at this point.  Here are a few.

1. Allison eats anything we put in front of her.  She will sometimes make a face and is sure to smell anything new before tasting it.  Once she tastes it, she eats it!  She did gag on her first taste of cheese and spit out her first applesauce, but now she will even eat those.  I guess the love of chicken feet and spicy tofu in China should have clued us in.

2.  She now knows her colors, ABCs, many body parts, and counts to 10.  She has also learned more words than I can count.  Some favorites right now include armpit, no,Ethan, Aiden, yucky, yellow, and apple.

3.  "No" is not a term that she has heard much.  We speculate that this is probably because she was so sheltered in the orphanage.  The kids weren't in rooms where there were many things that they couldn't have/touch.  We also believe that she was a favorite there.  This helps us tremendously with attachment, so we are certainly grateful for the care and love she received.

4.  She is OBSESSED with fashion, hair, nails, and make-up.  She has put together some interesting outfits so far, and as I type I have three clips, three pigtails, and a braid in my hair.  Our household has changed drastically!

5.  Allison's love for Disney already rivals that of her father, and she has not even been to a park.  She sings along to Frozen, and her favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She walks around singing, "Let it go!" and "Do you want to build a snowman?"  We also hear, "Oh, Toodles!" frequently.

6.  She has already made it known to us that her hair will be lonnnnnggg.  Just to be sure that we understand, she throws her arms out as far as they will reach and repeats, "LONNNNNGGGGG!"

7.  Allison adores her brothers, even if they need to hear no from her about 700 times per day.

8.  She is learning "boy" and "girl".  I bring this up because it recently became a pressing issue.  Allison learned "baby" pretty quickly.  Recently while out running errands, we realized that Allison points to any crying child and loudly calls them babies.  They don't look amused (neither do their parents).

9.  Pets are a very new idea!  Allison can't help it.  She just has to wuv them and pet them and wuv them and squeeze them and wuv them and pull on them and wuv them and get put in her place by them.  Oh well, she is learning.

10.  She is happy!  We know this because she tells us multiple times a day with a huge smile on her face.  Last night after her bath, Allison told me, "Allison happy, Mama happy, two happy!"  Then she hugged me (something else she didn't do until the boys showed her how)!

Our lives are so good.  We know it.  We are blessed and have THREE kids!

Home at last!

All is right with the world, and we have our family of five under one roof!  Allison continues to amaze us with her adaptability.  She has settled right in.  When we landed in Richmond, she took off toward her brothers like she has know them her whole life.  She took Aiden's hand and didn't look back.  It was a moment we will never forget.  The boys are so proud of their little sister, and she already idolizes them.

Our first challenge has been helping Allison switch her nights and days because she is used to being 12 hours ahead of our time.  She slept three hours the first night and was up and ready to check out all of her new toys.  When she saw her bedroom she was so excited but didn't understand that its contents belonged to her. She asked if the play jewelry was Grandma's.  It was so cute to watch her come to the realization that it is all hers.  Night two expanded to four hours of sleep and two very drowsy parents.  By last night, night three, she slept eleven hours in her bed, on her own!

We came home to the best weekend with all four grandparents here with us to celebrate Father's Day and Allison's fifth birthday.  The boys helped show Allison how to open her presents, and she caught on very quickly.  The kitties and "puppies" are her main focus right now, but she is quickly getting better around them.  The poor animals were so happy to see us come home and then Allison greeted them with shrieks of terror.  We separated them but only for a short time the first day.  She complained about them and kept her distance on day two, and then she touched them yesterday.  I predict that she will want McGuire to sleep with her in about a week.

We are so grateful for the help our parents provided us during our time away.  Our moms kept everything on track for the boys while we were gone during a very busy part of the school year.  We have been so humbled by the number of people we have heard from during this journey to our girl.  We were met with nothing but encouraging words and support throughout this entire endeavor, and it just shows us how fortunate we are.  We wouldn't trade our families and friends for anything because there are none better!

As we settle into our lives, we do so with a new appreciation of clean tap water, blue skies, and our family.

Koalas and tigers and pandas, oh my!

We had such a fun day today at the Chimelong Safari Park.  It was a day all about the kids, and Allison loved every minute.  She was thrilled to hear that she would get to see pandas today and even more thrilled when she finally saw them.  Check out some of the great pics from today.  We are so glad our girl is feeling so much better!

Here we go!

Feeding the baby tiger with Baba

Adorable Koalas

Koala with Baby

Allison was so happy to finally make it to the pandas!

We are in love with the baby panda!

Some days are like that, even in Australia (and in China)!

We arrived safely to Guangzhou and our hotel, The Garden.  We have  a very large and beautiful suite. The hotel is one of the nicest we have stayed in and has a gorgeous garden to stroll through.  This part of our trip is already more relaxing than the rest.  

Waiting...

Getting here was no small feat, though.  We arrived early to the Nanjing airport with plenty of time to make our 1:30 flight.  Allison didn't seem to be feeling well, and we had to put all of our meds in our checked luggage because no liquids are permitted in carry-on bags. Our flight was delayed four hours, and the airport was incredibly crowded and warm with few food choices.  Allison was very tired but unable to sleep there.  We were so relieved when we were finally able to board, but this was short-lived.  The pilot came on to let us know that we would be delayed an additional hour.  Our sweet girl was already nervous about flying, and by the time we finally took off she panicked.  Yes.  We were that family with the screaming child that couldn't be consoled.  When we were able to take off her seat-belt, she fell asleep on my lap.  We realized that the belt had her the most upset.  I had the flight attendants explain to her the need for the belt for landing in the hopes that it wouldn't scare her, but she became very upset as soon as it had to go back on.  The attendants quickly returned to our seat and told me that it was okay to hold her.  They allowed me to hold her during the entire landing.  It was a big help, but she will have to get used to a seat-belt soon! We were so grateful to get into the van to the hotel and were so happy to finally walk inside.  As we stood at the front desk to check in, Allison threw up all over the floor.  The poor thing was like a limp dishrag as we carried her to the room.  

How's that for an introduction to flying?  And to think, that was our "easy 2 hour flight"!

Very brief nap

Her face sums it all up!

We completed the medical exam this morning and were dreading taking Allison for the TB test after the rough trip we had and the little sleep she was able to get, but she handled it so well!  She is still not feeling great this evening, so we have started her on antibiotics.  We hope that she gets to feeling better quickly.

Big Girl

Hotel Lobby

Family of Five

I am sitting here updating with my DAUGHTER on my lap!  Can you believe it?  We had the most amazing day.  When Allison "Min Ru" entered the Civil Affairs Office with the orphanage staff, she looked at another family that was sitting there.  Then she looked at us and yelled, "Mama!  Baba!" and ran to us.  It was a moment we will never forget.  At the same time, it was sad to see the orphanage staff that cared for her so well have to say their goodbyes.  She is the first international adoption they have done, and they sent her with many things.  We have a bag of clothes, a bag of her favorite foods, and a backpack full of toiletries.  They bought her new shoes, a dress, a necklace, and a watch.  She is very much loved.  We are most grateful for one woman from the orphanage who cared for her in her own home until around age 2.  Then she took a job at the orphanage and has cared for her all this time.  I can't imagine what today must have been like for her.  I take solace in knowing that our sweet girl would have left her for another family if not ours, and I know we will give her an abundance of love.  We will also provide pictures to her first mother through emails.  We are very blessed!  We can't wait for her to meet her big brothers in person.  We did Skype before school, but it just isn't the same!

Our First Meeting

Allison "Min Ru" and Baba

Coloring Together

Baba, Min Ru, Mamas

New Dress

Let's Share Hats

Mama and Min Ru

We love mirrors!  Baba, Allison, and Mama being silly in the elevator!

Getting Ready for Bed