Over simplified ??

I was worried after my last post that I had mislead some of you. I thought JaLia was having issues with eating too much. She was throwing fits as soon as she got home each evening. I was having issues with giving her snacks before dinner. I really didn't want to reward her behavior with food and set myself up for bigger issues later. I asked my pediatrician and he was taking her side! I resigned myself to healthy "appetizers" and told myself that they were just part of her dinner......... It turns out that what she really didn't like was being "gated" in the toy room while I was too busy cooking to watch her. As soon as she hears that click, she cries. If the boys are there playing near her she is fine but if they leave her just for a second to go to the bathroom or what ever...look out............ Now that she is in daycare and getting snacks every 2 hours, she has been eating less at dinner. Its either that she is full or understanding her meals will be frequent or she is getting over a growth spurt either way I'm feeling better about that. They also sing alot of songs at daycare. The girl loves music anyway but she has taken to singing loudly to herself, there are some hand motions too but I just can't figure them out............... Her follow up appointment with the surgeon at Riley got canceled and I'm not sure I see the need to go back. I will schedule a follow up with the cardiologist just to see if I can get her off this medicine............... The bills are starting to roll in. They seem to be alot less that what I thought so that is a nice surprise! Still it's extra on top of the adoption expenses that i hadn't planned on.............. She is still scared of the big wide outdoors but getting a little more comfortable walking around by herself.

milestones

JaLia is way beyond being "from China" in my mind. That girl is sharp and understands most of what you say to her. She is now a normal, "i'm 2 1/2 and I'll do it my way, when I want to" kid. She does say lots of things like, bye bye and tickel tickle but mostly repeats when she is prompted. So far her only interest in communicating to us is to tell and sign to us that she wants to "eat" or have "more" and she does that all day long. Last night she actually said night night and made the go-to-sleep sign. I wasn't sure she meant it so I picked her up and rocked her and she didn't try to get down. When I carried her off, she was fine with putting on her jammies and went right to sleep. yea.......... Now if I can break her of that horrible habit of whining over every little thing. It a little hard to communicate to her to slow down, think it over, work it out hahaha

I'm caught up

I'm back at work !!!!!!!!!!! Wouldn't you know it, she slept in this morning but we got out of the house on time. Gosh I was so bored at home. Never a long enough stretch in the schedule to really do anything. JaLia has started daycare and she seems very happy. I just hope everything stays calm for awhile till I can get back in the groove............................. Feb 28th Had our pediatrician check up and she is looking good. Got the ok to start daycare......................... Feb 26th I am giving JaLia her diaretic earlier in the late afternoon and TRYING to give her a after dinner bottle earlier in the evening and it is helping with the middle of the night wakings!!!!.......................... Feb 23rd JaLia is not taking ANY pain meds and she is just fine. She is running around and climbing on stuff like nothing happened. She is on a diaretic which causes her to be wet more often and I think that is the cause of her trouble sleeping thru the night................. Feb 21st JaLia got the green light to come home....................................

JaLia didn't get much of a nap Sunday. Just as I got her to sleep the surgeon came and took out the pacemaker wires. The nurses had tried earlier without much success and Jesse was fit to be tied ! The boys had a good visit with her and then Jesse took them back home. I gave her a big dinner and a sponge bath and fresh sheets. She sucked down a bottle and I hope she slept well all night. This morning I started to load up my car and I put the car seat back in, I sure hope that doesn't jinks anything. Then as I was walking across campus I saw 1 GINKO leaf on the sidewalk. I didn't see a single ginko tree or any other ginko leaves. I'm sure that was kismet....... If everything looks good with bodily functions, they will release us today!!

Holding her own

They took the chest tube and the groin IV out of JaLia this morning but couldn't get the sutures out for the pace maker so we are waiting for the surgeon to come and do it. Of course she just fell asleep so he'll likely come now ;0) We just need to wait for the return of "normal bodily functions" and see if she has a clear chest x-ray tomorrow and we hope we can go home. She is on little if any other meds and is eating just fine. They are not happy that her blood pressure is high but then she freaks out crying every time they try to take it so go figure!!!

We're moving on up

JaLia was doing so well Friday night that they could of moved her out of ICU but they didn't have an empty bed at the Heart center. Today she continued to eat, play and wean off from her pain meds. They removed her oxygen tube and the heavy arm cuff that protected her IV and she didn't bother anything. She has some jumper wires hooked up to her heart in case they would need to hook up a pacemaker and they have a chest tube sewed in to provide drainage. They are moving her up to the heart center tonight and hopefully they will continue to disconnect her from all the foreign matter. She has been happy and played all day, just two days out of surgery!!! I spent the day with the boys doing household chores and we made brownies, cookies and cupcakes to take up with us tomorrow.

Chica is chipper

JaLia is doing great. They have decreased her pain meds and she is awake enough to be pissed off. They have removed most of her IV's and she is drinking. We will try to give her some food soon and they may let her out of ICU tonight!! Ok so the banana yogurt wasn't a great choice but the girl likes her waffles. Jesse is here visiting and has volunteered to try out the new Temperpedic mattress at the RMH and let me go home and get some real sleep ~haha After many sleepless nights, too much caffeine and sugar and too little solid food, I went home for a needed break and a home cooked meal of Wal-mart rotisserie chicken ;0) I wasn't feeling well and it was great to be home again.

She's OUT

After the 12:49 summons to come down and speak to the Dr. I waited another 40minutes and then smiling nurse came by to say it everything was fine, JaLia was in ICU and I should wait at least 30-40 minutes more to see the Dr. and then they would be ready for me to see her. I told her if he was busy I could just go see my daughter but she wanted me to wait. Luckily he popped in a few minutes later, "everything went fine" he said. I went down to grab more coffee and lunch and 25 minutes later went to the Ped ICU to find her. The nurses wouldn't let me in so the janitor did ~haha They weren't ready for me and tried to kick me out but Dr Schamberger was with her. He said her pressure was back to normal levels and he was very happy. She is off the ventilator and woke up fine from the anastesia. I'm going to see her now.

Still waiting.....

So the surgery waiting area is a small area where all the families sit around and a nurse walks thru every hour, on the hour to give updates. It creates a tension...waiting for that time to get closer. Waiting for the smiling nurse to come through just so she can say "everything is going fine" and then walk away. Watching the smiling doctors come through with their coffee cups in hand. How many cups of coffee should a doctor drink in a day?? Watching them tell the other families how everything went great, or worse watching other families cry and being happy that it isn't you....and then feeling bad about that. I couldn't stand to sit THERE so I went down to the Ronald McD lounge. Nice atmosphere but then I'm partial to mission......very calming. They have COFFEE, food and very comfy chairs. 12:00 update Everything is fine. The doctor is ready for me now.....gotta go.

We're here

Yesterday was a long day.....we were suppose to be at Riley by 11am. After checking in and giving more blood they sent us off to lunch. Then we waited around and they decided she needed more chest x-rays. Then we waited some more. About 3:30 the OR nurse came in, then around 4:00 an anesthesiologist, and then the Surgeon showed up before 5:00 for a quick How-dee-do. The Ronald McDonald House, (RMH) told me they were full and there was no way I would get a room that night. I called around and found a place and as I was driving into the hotel parking lot I heard my phone buzz. I had left it on vibrate while JaLia was napping!!!!!!!! RMH called and said they had a room !?!?!!! So I called the hotel and asked if I could cancel, it was 6:10 but she said no problem. I whipped around and drove back to the RMH. Really nice, large facility, different group bring in dinner everynight but they have 2 kitchens with plenty of storage space for your own food if you want to cook for your family. It's very inexpensive and quiet but you share a bathroom with 1 other room and no TV or food in your room !! good-bye chocolate - NOT JaLia got a late dinner, a antibacterial bath and a big warm bottle. I put her down late for bed and she went right to sleep. I got about 5 hours on top of the 5 the night before but I feel good. We had to be at Riley at 6am this morning. Got her checked in and they gave her a dose of lala juice. Boy was she funny, I tried to get some pictures but video would have been better. They just whisked her off and told me that anesthesiology would have her the first hour and then the Doc would take 3-4 hours. So she should be done around 11:30?? They will keep her sedated for awhile so the body can do it's thing. She might even be sedated over night!

Operation date set

What is this thing??

She loves to watch it float.

Blowing kisses

I took JaLia to the dentist yesterday for her pre-op check. The dentist was amazed at how nice her teeth were and she got a clean bill of health. I will be driving up to Riley tomorrow for her pre-op preparations and then hopefully stay the night for her 6am visit to the OR on Thursday. We don't know what time the surgery is till tomorrow so I won't be able to post it but please keep her in your prayers. I will be staying at the Ronald McDonald house if they have a room available and hopefully she'll be out in like 4 days !!!!!!!1

2 weeks home

So after 36 hours I was feeling human again. JaLia has had difficulty getting to bed at night. I tried to move back her bed time by 2 hours each night. She slept fine at the hotel and they told me, complete dark and no night light. Here she just screamed till you picked her up. I was afraid to move her to the bedroom because the boys needed to sleep for school. We finally just left the light on in her room and she made it thru the night just fine. After 2 good days she caught a low fever with no other symptoms that I could see so I thought I had just pushed her too much and she was "checking out" of these strange new things happening to her. She'd perk right up and eat with gusto so I let her sleep and didn't think to take her to the Dr............................. She either bites her lip at night or just rubs her nose on the sheet too much but she has been waking up with a bloody face and I had to get darker sheets. She also has a terrible habit of wiping her nose with her sleeves which helps contribute to the raw chapped face..................................................... Wednesday we went for our visit to Riley. She does have a large hole which will need repair. I have to talk with the Dr tonight and see when they can get her in. He is thinking about 3 weeks. ******ooh he just called and they want her next week so I can stay on my original plan. She will stay in the hospital anywhere from 4-10 days and then need 2 weeks to recover. On top of that she does have an ear infection. We put her on antibiotics and she perked right up. Her vaccination record looked good but I've heard those are often falsified or just a weak dosage that really needs to be redone................................ She refuses to drink American formula so they said it was best to revert to the bottle and see if that helps. She sucks down water all day so i feel good about that. I've been giving her fortified cereals cause I knew kids don't get enough iron but I didn't know that gummy vitamins don't have iron in them so i need to switch those. I suck at transitioning kids from baby food to people food so i need to work on her variety. So far everything has been mush. She could feed herself, I need to get over the clean up issue ~hahaah Her only dislikes so far have been french toast and grilled cheese. I'm really careful not to give her alot of things that she could eat but have gobs of preservatives,sodium and other chemicals that she is not used too.

I made it back....ALIVE

Now I know why my trip was so uneventful, the trip back was hell. I have to give a big shout out to Nikki and Bob, my Sooner Saviors!!!!. They hail from Edmond and I hope their daughter Brook is as thrilled with her new sister Bailey as my boys are with JaLia. They were on my flights from Guangzhou to Shanghai to Chicago and really helped out with the long layovers, baggage pick ups, security checks, customs and whats up with escalators at the gates?? I became a pro at getting that stroller up and down those escalators. While the trip over was great, we got sat in the middle of the 5 seat row on the way back. JaLia's foot was just small enough to fit under the armrest and she kick the lady next to us the whole way. I also figured out that she HATES seat belts. No matter how loose I made it, she fussed loudly. Unfortunately our evening flight from China was expecting turbulence so the seat belt needed to be left on and dinner was delayed over an hour. Luckily I had packed LOTS of snacks and that was the only thing that kept her quiet. I got back to a sick husband, so we were all miserable, all weekend. Sunday, just when I was getting to feel human again, I discovered the boys had Lice and then JaLia caught Jesse's flu.

Wednesday-Last Day in China

Wouldn't you know it, that last day and the sun came out. Yesterday we went to a museum of an old house, which is a big square with an open courtyard in the middle. It was cloudy so I didn't get many good pictures but it was a good ride back with lots of culture to see. Just started to get my bearings around here and it is time to leave.

I thought I would have more room in my suitcase without the orphanage gifts, but I guess I just filled them up with gifts for home. I also thought it best not to be short on diapers so I'm loaded up on those too.

I took JaLia to the park and she played hard. I usually keep her from a nap with all our running around but she passed out at 3pm so I need to wake her up so she will sleep tonight or let her sleep and wake her up early and hope she naps during our 7 HOUR layover in China. But I really want her to sleep on the 14 hour flight so I guess I should wake her up and let her cry in the room where I won't bother anyone. ~haha

Tuesday

We did the unceremonious red couch picture. The day is still cloudy and batteries are not strong enough to hold the flash ! Went to the open air museum, would of been nicer if it was a sunny day. Eva offered to take me to chinese resturant and then when I ordered, she told me she was leaving for a meeting.... haha It wasn't that good anyway. It is such a shame there is no GOOD food on this compound. They have some souviener shops but not like you would expect them to gear towards tourists. Anyway I'll pack tomorrow and get up real early Thursday for the long trip home. Since it's a week day I am hoping the flight will be not full.

Sunday

Sunday: Still cloudy, I went to early mass (all in chinese) and spoke with the priest beforehand. We took a trip to the zoo and my chinese batteries lasted about 20 minutes. JaLia was a real pill today, wouldn't drink anything all day. Wouldn't put on her hat, blanket, sit in stroller or walk by herself. She just wanted to be held. She wasn't happy but I made her take a nap. Now I will never get her to sleep.

Saturday

Saturday : It was cloudy and chill again, we spent the afternoon at the asian Wal-Mart. It was gearing up for Chinese New Years and I got some decorations. Took some wine coolers back to my room and ate noodles, again.

Friday

Friday : I woke up in a foul mood and thought I was coming down with something. The guide took us on a walking trip to the mall and it was sunny so the fresh air helped. After the trip everyone wanted to eat together so I got a beer and some hot food.

Thursday

Thursday: The day was cloudy and chill and everyone wanted to stay inside so I ended up staying in my room soooo boring.

Can U say H-A-P-P-Y??

For a girl with a heart condition, you would never know it. JaLia runs non-stop all day and is full of energy.

Boys: she loves hard boiled eggs but like you, not the yolk so much.

This morning a chinese guy asked if she was a boy or girl.....I guess the hot pink sweater and pants with bows was NOT a dead give away.

I gave her a bath and she loved it !!! Even the hair washing. It must have been the stacking cup magic.

Today was such a beautiful day. It got way too hot in the room, and I had to open a low window and turn off the central since they only have heat this time of year. The windows don't have screens on them so it will just be a matter of time before JaLia figures out how to throw her toys into the alley. I made them bring me a fan. Did I mention that my room is right over all the air returns. No wonder I am not sleeping. I didn't look at the clock last night but I was up for hours and then slept till 8am. I haven't slept that late in over 10 years!!!!

I made myself go out for a walk around the compound and what a difference a little shopping will do for a girl's mood. We skipped lunch and nap and went to the passport office. I met the family with the little boy from the same orphanage. She said that the orphanage had a pool, and they heard they had won some awards. You can tell it in JaLia's personality.

Then I met a lady who thought her daughter was from the same orphanage. They were the same age, but her daughter was unsteady walking and timid, soooo shy. They had been told she was potty trained and could feed herself. You just never know and it's all up to the divine. Speaking of that, I did find a Catholic church here on the compound but did not see any sign for mass times.

We got back from paperwork around 4:00, so I decided to venture out on my own for dinner. I went into what I thought was a resturant but it wasn't and then I couldn't find another one nearby so I was back in front of Lucy's. I was determinded NOT to eat American, so I had some lamb kabobs and fried rice and JaLia had noodles. The wine wasn't bad either.

Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight.

The last thing I wanted to eat in China was Subway!!

It was another great day. We had to get up early so we could go to the bank again. They take a real long time at the bank too, not just with US money but everybodies!!

We had to go back to the civil affairs office and say we were happy with our child and wanted to keep them. It was so great seeing all the new families!!

We had a small lunch and Jalia took a looong nap, when she got up (around 4:00) we went out for a stroll and I just grabbed a Subway for dinner. Hopefully when more people arrive they will want to venture out and eat at some local resturants. There aren't very many here on the compound and they don't seem to cater to English although they might when we get inside.

Jalia is a ball of fire. She breathes heavy, and I can't tell if it's the cold or her heart. She is very crouppy so hopefully that will go away soon. She eats well and Boys- she loves waffles, whale crackers and bananas. We also watched Power Rangers, Ben 10 and poke'mon in chinese. She has a constant look on her face like she has a joke and is waiting for you to catch on to it....

Well hopefully she will get sleepy soon, last night it was 9-930 before she went down. I am not sleeping well but we aren't doing anything so it's not like I'm worn down sitting in the hotel room. New camera batteries are dead already and I didn't bring spares so I need to get more and I'll try to send pictures..

Gotcha Day - I got her !!!!

Wow what a trip, Nothing like what I had prepared for, all these years. I fretted over the packing and nobody even checked my carry-ons. I know I was over weight on them but nobody cared. The flight was great, nobody talks about that. My plane was empty and everyone got to spread out. I bought a sandwhich to take on and then they feed us 2 hot meals, two snacks and drinks on the hour!!!!! I guess that made up for the 6 hr layover I had in Shanghai. I couldn't check in till 2 hrs before the flight so I ended up sitting on the cold floor. They don't have many seats in the departure area and lots of people were there waiting!!

l got to my hotel about 2:00am local time. It's 13 hours time ahead of Indiana. I wasn't impressed with the area. There were not many families here, and I was bored to death. The quaint architecture is still cold, and I just had a feeling of foreboding.

We got to the civil affairs office early, and it was a trip to see all the other families come in. So many were on their 2nd &3rd adoption and had brought the big brothers and sisters. Some children cried, some were a little scared. One boy about 5 just shrieked and shrieked, my heart went out to those parents.

Once again I lucked out big time !!! NiNi is happy, babbling, and not a bit worried about being left with me. She is not as big as the clothes or diapers I have so we will have some emergency shopping to do. A stroller is on my list too as there is so much to carry around.

Tomorrow, I will figure out how to hook up the camera. I didn't get aroom with a computer so I'm down here in the business center.

Welcome Amy

Since Blogger is blocked by the Chinese, I had to find a ghost blogger. Amy so graciously offered to help me out. I will be emailing her and she will upload them for me. I sure hope I can figure out how to upload pictures too. I will not be able to read your comments but feel free to post them and I will read them all when I get back. You can also attempt to email me at dworsena@gmail.com but I might not have time to reply to you. I'm sure I will be busy eating dim sum and faking my way through Cantonese lullabies.

This is it

Tuesday we had a snow day and I guess I really needed to stay home cause I had lots of little unfinished things to do. I also had to unpack and repack several times and still don't have everything I need. I really didn't want to go to Beijing in winter for this very reason. The weather down in Guaunzhou will hopefully be in the 60's. I packed so little that I will need to do laundry twice for the 14 day trip and still my suitcases are stuffed. I know I didn't pack enough gifts. I did finally remember to pack a few things for JaLia but since I don't know her size it would be smarter to wait and get her some clothes there. I wondered if the act of taking her into a store, letting her help me pick items out and then buying them for her will help to build some attachment. I just pray I make it thru security with all this stuff. If they unzip my suitcase it could be a disaster.

I can go, no really I can

I forgot to mention but I hope you all guessed. I got that very important piece of paper in the mail Friday. I don't have to postpone, I don't have to pay a penalty. I actually went to work friday with a bit of JOY in my step and now I know why.....adoption miracles were afoot.

Time travel

Some malicious folk wanted me to explain to them how long my travel will be. I have been carefully avoiding this as I am a go-to-bed-early person and I get very cranky when I'm tired. I nervously sat down and tried to figure it up. I leave home at 530am, leave Indiana at 900, get to Chicago 1 hr later. After a 1 hr layover, I board my flight for Shanghai. I arrive 7 thousand miles and 14 1/2 hrs later in Shanghai (at 200am my time)....can you say cranky. Actually I wake up at 2am all the time so maybe it won't be so bad. I packed lots of sleeping pills so hopefully I'll pass out early enought to get 6 hours of sleep which I'll really need cause my next layover is 5 1/2 hr long. I'm paranoid I'll fall asleep at the airport and miss my next flight!!!!!!! The last leg is a 2 1/2 hr flight and gets me into Guangzhou at 1130 pm. (It will be 10am my time.) I hope that after a hot shower and more sleeping pills I will be able to relax till the famous breakfast buffet opens up. ~~~~I'm interested to know if the alarm clocks are in chinese or english.

8 more days

Not much news this week....I'm still waiting on that important paper but won't know till Monday if my world will crumble. I did find out I'm not the only odd man out going in my group so I will have someone else going thru the same extra hoops as me. That make 4 families total in my travel group and 1 lives about 40 minutes away from me.

An expensive mistake

I figured out AFTER I made my plane reservations that one of the many forms that I will carry to China with me needs to not just be notarized BUT state and Chinese consulate authenticated. I express mailed the paperwork to Indianapolis both ways but that didn't help with their 1 week turn-around-time. In a panic I was on the phone wheeling and dealing with driving to indy to pick up document and then overnighting to Chicago to have the courier walk thru before she took off for christmas vacation but in the end I couldn't handle the STRESS. I made the expensive decision to postpone my flights and the next consulate appt. I could get was for the 24th. Now I am leaving on the 14th of January. My GOTCHA day will be Jan 17th. I did get my state authentication before Christmas so I mailed it out first thing today. The Chinese consulate is open the week between Christmas and New Years but I'm not sure the 4 business day turn-around-time will include the 29th or the 31st so I promise not to panic till the 10th. I will be with 1 other family the whole time instead of alone 1 week and then with 3 other families the next week.----not sure how that translates into sharing expenses but hopefully they don't charge me more!!

My daughter doesn't speak CHINESE !!!!

What???? that's to say, she doesn't speak mandarin. You know that Chinese dialect that most of China speaks. Since she is from the south, she speaks Cantonese. All those years of practicing mandarin, the class I took, the dictionary I bought, the 37 Ni Hao Kai-lan's I taped, the story I wrote that I wanted to read to her in pin-yin. I guess it's back to sign language and pantomime.

Getting a referral at christmas time sounds romantic but what a pain in the ass !!!!!! I couldn't send off for a visa till I got back from my vacation to Mexico (yea 8 months ago, a vacation this time of year sounded like a fun thing to do) so I left everything at work to be mailed off first thing Monday. Did I mention I drove back Sunday night in a nice little snow storm?? So school was closed Monday and I got my huband to take off 1/2 day so I could go in and get it mailed. My courier service is off over the holidays but assures me she will have it in the mail and delivered by the 24th. I need to cut all my fingernails off now before I bite them to the quick. The American consulate in Guangzhou is closed till Jan 3rd but since the consulate appt. comes at day 10 of the trip I didn't understand why I couldn't leave as soon as my visa arrived (Dec 27th??) anyway they got me an appointment for the 11th so I am planning on leaving Jan 1st. I'm sure the plane will be very quiet and I hope the pilot doesn't have a hang over!!!!! I remembered to get some papers signed by my husband and notarized while we were both near the bank. Oh what's that in the fine print?? One of the documents needs to be notarized AND state authenticated AND chinese consulate authenticated. Wow, wish someone had mentioned that 6 weeks ago!! Since the post office will be closed for about 4 days I'm not sure I will be able to leave on the 1st. Good thing I haven't faxed in my travelers insurance yet. I'm gonna need that extended plan. So I'm doing what I can and not (externally) sweating what I can't. I hope to have some nice time off with the boys and my niece so I can get the tree up and looking a little like christmas. The big trauma will be getting Jesse moved out of JaLia's room and into my closet. Once I get the room dusted and fluffed I will feel so much better. I can almost feel the brass ring at the end of this carousel ride.