Update from HOME!

Wow, we have been BUSY!!!!  Thank you for your patience with us while we got settled in and took a little break from updating.

Last you heard from us, Amelia's adoption documents were finally read and we were sending Justin on the train to pick up the final court decision and new birth certificate.

He was able to get them just fine and made it back in time to meet me at the passport office on the same day. Our sweet friend rented a car and came and picked up Anna and Levi so I only had to take Claire and Amelia with me! He got off the train at 2:15, we applied for the passport at 3 (they close at 3:30) and the passport was ready THE NEXT MORNING at 9:30am (it's supposed to take 2-7 days)!  By 10am we were at the embassy doing our visa interview, they told us that Monday afternoon would be the earliest that we could get the visa but we called at 2pm just to check on it and it was already printed!!!!  So by 3pm, we had her visa in our hands and were frantically trying to get a hold of our travel agent to see if there were still available flights home for the next couple of days since it was a holiday weekend. It turned out that the only one with five available seats left was leaving in 15 hours (at 6am)!!!!! We had some issues with our credit cards not working (we had so many unexpected expenses with the hospitalizations) but after a very hectic and stressful 2-ish hours, we finally had our tickets booked (thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us borrow the money) and were starting to pack. If you have never done this document process before or followed a family that has, it usually takes 5-10 days to get all of these steps done so we were quite shocked [and very, very pleased!!!!!] that it went so quickly. We absolutely had some major favor on our side.

The kids did pretty well on the plane. We got lucky and some young guys were in the bassinet row so they traded seats with us and we had TWO bassinets which came in quite handy when Amelia would have moments where she just needed space. I was very worried about her ears since she was still recovering from a ruptured ear drum and very bad ear infections but we put in some drops right before we took off and she seemed to be fine!  We did have quite a bit of crying but what two-year old who is still adjusting to really any stimulation wouldn't cry a lot on an 18-hour traveling day??? It was a little frustrating because they insisted that we buy a plane ticket for Amelia (since she's 2) but once we were on the plane, they wouldn't actually let her sit in it due to "safety reasons" since the buckle wouldn't fit her properly and she doesn't sit stably-enough. So so silly!

Our sweet neighbor picked us up at the airport and we came home to a clean and decorated house, a full fridge and pantry, homemade chocolate chip cookies, balloons, and flowers!!!!  We are so thankful to have such generous friends.

Amelia is doing well here. She seems to be more relaxed [maybe because we are!]. She is beginning to seek out interaction during parts of the day (crawl toward us, reach her arms up to be held, etc.), there are still many more times that she wants to be left alone but it is a HUGE step! She has started to play with toys and to look up occasionally while she is playing and crawling and if she sees something that she wants, she tries to go and get it! She loves to look at lights and bold patterns, especially stripes. If Claire is wearing a shirt that she likes, she will follow her and try to climb on top of her to look at the pattern [Claire does not enjoy this]!

She is eating 5, 6oz bottles per day. We are fortifying them with additional formula to make them 27cal/oz (formula and breastmilk are typically 20) and thickening them in order to try to get in all of the nutrition that she needs and to keep her swallowing safe. This means we are going through a can of formula every three days!! She still won't let us near her with any solid foods so we have been doing a lot of playing in the highchair and with food near her. Playing in the highchair is really good for her because it puts her toys at a higher level and helps her to look up more as well! If we put food in her mouth "just to see," she gags until she spits up, bites, and cries and then doesn't want us near her again. Letting her be in control of what goes in her mouth and when seems to be the best way to help her so we are patiently waiting and offering experiences as much as we can.

She has been to the pediatrician, GI doctor, dietician, ENT, PT, ST, and the cardiologist so far. This week we see PT, OT, speech (for feeding therapy), opthomology and pulmonology.  She is also getting a full abdominal ultrasound this week to check on her gall stones and to make sure everything else looks okay (kidney, bladder, etc.). Next week we see neurology and our general surgeon.

She has been scheduled to get ear tubes on Friday. The ENT is worried that her ear canals may be too small for the smallest tubes but we are going to try.  She has had FOUR ear infections in the eight weeks she has been with us and despite just finishing up another course of antibiotics, he said that her ears are still very full of fluid. Hopefully the tubes will allow the fluid to drain and then we will schedule a hearing test. Claire is getting scheduled for a hearing test as well.

The GI doctor gave us a referral for the general surgeon to review Amelia's gall stones and hernia. She also has a pretty severe diastisis recti (abdominal separation) but we will likely just keep an eye on it for a bit. He ordered a lot of blood work to check Amelia's nutrition and then we met with him and the dietician together to figure out Amelia's plan for eating. She isn't on the growth chart for height or weight but we suspected that. We will go back for weight checks and adjust as necessary. Hopefully we are able to get her gaining and growing like she needs to with just little tweaks!

The cardiologist found an ASD (hole between the atria) and also pulmonary stenosis (this means that there is an obstruction of the blood flow between her heart and her lungs). We don't need to do anything about either one right now, we will just keep an eye on them and she may, at one point in the next couple of years, need surgery.


I have been thinking about something the last couple of days and I wanted to share ....
Amelia IS absolutely doing so so so amazing. The amount of things that she has overcome in such a short time is miraculous actually but it's important to be honest too that it's easier to share the cute photos of her smiling and appearing to look at me [when really it's a rattle that I'm furiously shaking and I took 173 photos to get one that looked like she was sorta looking at me .... ;)].

When I think about sharing the more "real" stories/pictures/videos of Amelia I get protective ... I worry how she might feel when she's older and sees them or if she would want me to share them, I worry about letting my own heart "go there" in remembering where she has been and what she has gone through as I'm sure you can imagine, it is very emotional for me to think about, and I worry what others might say.

But then I'm convicted .... It's so similar to something I do in my own life and with my own story. It's easy to share the good moments, to bury and hide the ones that reveal the vulnerable.

Right before we left for Poland, a dear friend called me out... in a good way! You see, the enemy tries to keep us quiet. He uses shame to keep us from telling others what we have been through but it's sharing those most vulnerable and real moments that God can often use our testimony the most. Shame keeps us feeling isolated. I want Amelia to know what she has overcome and I DO NOT want her to ever be ashamed, it's her testimony, it's her redemption story, how the Creator of heaven and earth saw HER and called a family from the other side of the world to come! How she was broken and He treasured her, how He healed her. How He had patience and continued to love her and wait for her while she bit, screamed, and fought at every turn. He loves us all just the same!

And there's another reason why it's important to be authentic about our journey and what Amelia has gone and is going through: the 153 MILLION orphans still out there. People NEED to know what these children are facing. It's BAD, it's really really bad. BABIES are left alone, they aren't fed, they aren't touched, they die for no other reason than that there wasn't enough time or money or help to meet their basic needs .... CHILDREN are sent to adult institutions where horrible things happen to them and they never, ever come out and it isn't just in third world countries, it's in Eastern Europe and Asia and South America! Yes, it's painful to think about, yes, it's hard to see .... but they NEED us to see. They NEED someone to care.

When we picked Amelia up from the orphanage, she was going a full DAY with not one single wet diaper. She didn't know how to hold a toy or shake a rattle and wasn't able to track objects with her eyes. Everything points to that she had absolutely NO stimulation whatsoever. If you set her on the ground, she would immediately crawl toward a door, wall, or piece of furniture to bang her head repeatedly on it. I would hold her in the carrier as much as I could and if I was in the bathroom or making a meal or something, the big kids would follow her around and pull her back over and over again from the walls. If she wasn't banging her head, she was rocking .... and grunting, and grinding her teeth. If she was upset or overstimulated AT ALL, she would immediately bite her hands [hard!] over and over again. She had NO idea how to communicate with us. She never looked up from the ground, not while sitting, not while crawling. I would lay on my back on the ground and put her on her belly on my chest just to get her to look at me. We had to hold her while she cried every night until she fell asleep because otherwise, she would bang her head in the crib until she fell asleep. In the bathtub, she'd try to put her head under the water to the point that it took two of us to keep her safe. She didn't even know how to EAT unless she was sound asleep. She didn't like any touch or interaction with us at all (except for tickling if she was in the right mood and she likes the sound of the rattle) - this is when we got most of our great pictures.

.....and look at her now <3.

So ..... I promise to be more intentional about sharing the "real" moments and being more honest about the challenges mixed into our unspeakable joy!  For Amelia. For our family. For orphans. and for you. That God may use our story to help others and to further His kingdom!


We wish you many, many blessings!!!  As always, thank you for cheering us on!  We have got to be the luckiest family in the world <3 <3 <3.

"Middle Sister"!!!!!!!

We had to put pillows behind her back to get the seat belt to fit.

These are the bassinets!

The moment right after her passport was stamped, making her
officially a US Citizen!!!!!

Claire is standing so well!!

They all fell asleep on the way home from a long day
at the doctor.

Silly girl <3!

Claire and her new orthotics!  She likes them.

At big sister's Christmas program.

At the cardiologist.

I love this one!! <3

Merry Christmas friends <3.