Yes, We are Home!!!

Hello again! Yes, we are home, and have been for 10 days. Wednesday, July 9th we left the hotel at 9am and drove an hour to the airport. We met up with the family we first met at the doctor's office and sat with them waiting until it was time to board our flight. Hooray, hooray! The in-flight movies/TV shows, etc. worked! Jill didn't want anything to do with them, but since she occupied herself looking at the Sky Mall magazines and such Wade and I got to watch some movies. After two hours of looking at the magazines on the plane it was time to eat, then she took a two hour nap! After that it was time to eat again, then she read the books we had brought. Then we ate again and she napped about a half hour to hour, then she and the other three year old girl played together with stacking cups and other toys for the rest of the trip! So, it wasn't bad at all for an 11 hour flight. We had a three hour layover in Atlanta, then a one hour and 22 minute flight. But... we boarded the flight and he announced that it was an hour and 22 minute flight, we started heading to the runway, then stopped. He announced that the winds had changed and so they were changing the direction of takeoff. A little later he announced that there were 50 planes that were to take off before us. I really, really thought Wade misheard that, there couldn't possibly be 50 planes before us! But, he hadn't misheard. I started counting as planes would take off and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later when the pilot announced that the winds had changed again and we were turning around to takeoff another way, but the good news was that there were now only 11 planes left to take off before us. We finally took off a little after we were supposed to have arrived in St. Louis! I slept the whole way and so did Jill. I'm not sure about Wade. So, we finally arrived and it was SO good to see the boys!!! They both grew a few inches this month! They were super excited to meet Jill and started trying to play with her and tickle her and get her to say their names. She of course had been woken up from a much needed good night's sleep and wasn't too into the commotion, but did OK. When we got home she perked up a little playing with the balloons the kids and my parents had decorated the house with. Then, about midnight here (9am the next day-24 hours since we left the hotel) we went to bed. She was so tired she fell asleep immediately, no crying or anything. The next day Wade made pancakes and sausage; the boys favorite breakfast. We pretty much just hung out the next three days. My mom came by, we played outside, I brought up a bookcase and some toys for her and set it up in the living room, etc. Ty taught her to climb up the fort and go down the slide; she loves that. I pushed her on the swing; she likes it too, but jumps down with no notice which scares me! The boys pick her up and swing her around until she's dizzy and falls down, then she says "up?" and they do it again, and again, and again, and again, 20 times if she wants! They've hardly gone downstairs this week, and they usually hang out there all the time because that's where all their stuff is! Saturday we went to my parents and she met their dog, a big Golden Retriever. She wasn't to thrilled about that. She pull her legs up while someone held her so the dog wouldn't lick her feet and she yelled "nyet" if the dog got to close. But she was OK sitting on my mom's lap with the dog close by, she just didn't really want to touch it. On Sunday we went to church and she had tons of fun saying "up" because anyone and everyone wanted to pick her up! Later that day we went to Ty's baseball practice where she and Jake and I played on the playground, then we all went to our friends' house to swim in their inground pool and have dinner. She like sitting on the step of the pool, but didn't want to go further at first. Little by little we coaxed her in and it was OK; then after awhile, she loved it. She even would get out and I'd say, "one, two, three, jump!" and she'd jump in to me! Then I'd hold her middle and she'd kick her legs to 'swim' to the other side, get out and jump in again! Monday started our week of doctor appointments. Monday we saw our pediatrician. I was so surprised to hear that she was in the 10th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height! I had heard that orphans usually aren't on the chart when they first arrive in the country, and she was a premie baby too! He agreed with our going to an ENT and eye doctor and told us to also see an International Adoption Specialist that we know of from a workshop we went to. Tuesday we didn't have any doctor appointments, but Ty's new teacher came to visit. At our school the teachers make home visits to each child in their new class over the summer to get to know them, give parents the emergency contact forms, computer use forms, supply lists, etc. Monday night I had three of those visits to make. Anyway, Ty's teacher came over during the day, then Ty had a baseball game that night. On Wednesday we went to the ENT and she does have HUGE adenoids and HUGE tonsils. Both will come out on August 7th. But before that she needs to have a sedated CAT scan because of a hemangioma (not sure how to spell it). If you noticed in the pictures what looks like a blue vein or a bruise on the bridge of her nose, that's it. Since it's on the inside it can sometimes spread or something inside and the doctor wants to check it out. She did say that it's usually nothing. After that we grabbed lunch at McDonald's then the boys had piano lessons and then Ty had an allergist appointment. He had to do the back prick test thing again which I hate; it just seems like torture to poke someone, have their back swell up with huge itchy mosquito bite like bumps and not let them touch or scratch it!!! So for the second time he tested highly positive (3++ to 4+++) for every tree except Mulberry, every grass but one, three fall weeds, and a bunch of animals and dust mite things. So, we're going to start allergy shots because he's so extremely allergic to so many things. If they work he'll probably be a much more agreeable kid and do even better in school because he won't feel miserable in September, October, March, April and May! (over half of the school year!)Wednesday night I went on three more home visits! Thursday we had her eye appointment. According to the eye doctor, she is not cross eyed; it's called pseudostrabismus where her eye appears to cross, but it's really an illusion due to her large nose bridge. We're going to watch her after her adenoids are out and see if they still looked crossed after the swelling goes down some. He said to come back in November and he'd check her out again. That's good because I don't think I'd want to have two surgeries so close together right now. Thursday night I had two more home visits! Friday we didn't have any appointments until my home visit at 7pm!!! So we hung out at home until 3:15 when I drove to drop off Ty with a friend to take him to the Cardinals game! His baseball team went and they even got to walk on the field before the game!!! Today, Saturday, Jake had a 9am baseball game, Ty had an 11:30am baseball game, Ty and Wade had haircut appointments and then we had friends over! Tomorrow will be church again, then Jake's baseball pictures, Jake has a baseball game, and then Monday morning starts a week of soccer camp at Lutheran North which is about an hour drive for us, but the camp is well worth the drive. We usually have to leave at 7am to make it on time, but there are lots of people I like to sit and visit with while the boys participate in the camp and a number of them knew last summer about the adoption and are probably anticipating meeting Jill this summer! I'll continue home visits next week, then Wade's brothers are coming into town, we have two days of teachers meetings August 5th and 6th and then Jill has her surgery the 7th with a two week recovery. Whewww! We've been busy, and it looks like we will continue to be busy! But, all in all she's doing really well. She goes to bed easily about 8pm every night. She eats well, she's done some weird things like not eating watermelon one day, then eating a ton of it the next, or not wanting to eat off her own plate pointing at Wade's plate, then when Wade dumps her food on his plate-she eats it! Just stuff that has no rhyme or reason, but nothing big deal. I recently found out that most 2-3 year olds chew with their mouths open! That made me feel better; I just don't remember the boys ever doing that. And, I think it will be easier to teach her when the tonsils and adenoids are out and she can breathe. She does great with the potty as long as it's just pee, but we're still fighting the other using something called Miralax and still going only every five days! She says up, shoes, my, show (as in TV show), jump, more, nose, banana (well, nana), apple (actually bopple), no, book, fish, hello, and sit! Along with these she knows all of our names. She understands more than she can say; for example when I say, "put that back" she does! And today when I got her down from breakfast after two big bowls of Raisin Bran even though she wanted more and said, "come wash hands" she whipped her hands behind her back and shook her head no! So, it's really going well. The boys really help out a lot playing with her and keeping her content. They're exceptionally good with her! Hopefully I've covered all the bases from the flight to what we've been up to (why I haven't blogged for so long!) to doctor appointments, to what she's learned so far and how she's adapting and how the boys are adapting. If I think of anything else I'll try to get on and add it or write it down for the next time I have some time to blog again!