Kaylee's First Doctor Visit

We took Kaylee to her first doctors appointment today. Dr. Martin thinks that she seems to be doing well considering how dramatically her life has changed in the last week and a half... Hard to believe that it hasn't even been 2 weeks with her yet...she is such a part of us! She had a ton of bloodwork done for all the testing they need to do :(. She did great- the second they were done she just laid on my shoulder and stopped crying right away. Dr. Martin couldn't believe how safe she seems to feel with us as he watched her get calm as soon as I held her and as he watched her "help" Brodie as he was getting her dressed after her check up (she helps by lifting her leg up to your hand when you are putting her pants on, etc) We were concerned with her diet (formula and rice cereal) and how she won't even let us put a spoon to her mouth to get her to try other foods---he thinks a couple more weeks with her being surrounded by love may make all the difference- if not we will go back to him for plan B ;)

Kaylee seems to be doing well now that we are home- maybe because we are more relaxed and comfortable??? She slept great last night! Only woke up a couple of times to climb back on top of me---this is HUGE progress- the last 6 nights before that I could barely get her to sleep and she never really got into a deep sleep until the early hours of the morning...thank you to all of you who are praying for sleep for us! We will see how she does tonight - I have been trying to get her to sleep for a few hours now and she wakes right up when I try to roll her off of me....so I thought I may as well update the blog while I try to get her to sleep ;) Brodie keeps saying, "Babe, you are so patient...I don't know how you're doing this with her never letting you put her down all day and night." Honestly, it is all Jesus and His strength and patience. I do fine as long as I set my daily expectations to 0 ... I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a season (and as my friend Jami reminded me today to just get through one day at a time). And what an important season it is for Kaylee! Her first time ever of having love and beginning to learn what love is.  It is a season of allowing God to use us to cover her first years of trauma and pain. I keep hearing in my mind, "It's not spoiling - it's meeting needs."  I also keep remembering God's promise that we will see His glory! We already have! Every small victory is celebrated! She spent most of  yesterday with her head down on my shoulder; pretty much just shut down. Today she had her head up looking around and watching the big kids most of the day...we got a lot of high 5's, she threw the ball a lot and we even got a few smiles. Jesus is helping her to feel safe with us little by little and every little bit counts!


My mom came again today to help with laundry and watch the big kids while we went to the doctor- such a WONDERFUL blessing! She does all the things I would be doing if my hands weren't full ;)
Kaylee is making progress with Brodie- she still screams when I first hand her off (and arches her back and kicks ;). But she calmed right down this morning and laid on his shoulder while I got dressed and brushed my teeth :)

We have changed the attitude hand swipe (from the video we posted in China) to "Kaylee, blow kisses" - so if she blows a kiss from her nose, you will know why ;). We were encouraging the sassiness a little too much so we're changing it to something sweet ;)

She seems to do ok with visitors ~ she may even give a high 5 ;) Nana Carol is coming tomorrow and we are all excited to see her! We are still really just keeping her world small - so many changes for her in the last 12 days...new people, new county, new sights and smells (today we were walking our friends who stopped by out and the wind blew on her face - she wasn't quite sure what to think of that...at first it bothered her, then she thought it was funny. We just have to keep remembering that pretty much everything is new to her!)

on the plane

sleeping - we left at 1 am so we were all ready to crash!

After sleeping, Kaylee was ready to play!

Playing with the snack they gave us

Ben and Alese welcomed us with signs and Chipotle! 

So thankful to be home!

We were greeted with more signs when we got home...thank you everyone for making us feel welcomed back!!!

Nana had some gifts for the kids

Mike and Stacy came by for a visit this morning and Stacy snapped this picture....such a sweet gift to have! Kaylee likes getting kisses ;)

Ready for our doctors appointment

Eating at an outside restaurant in our backyard that our big kids made for us

We Are HOME!!!!

It feels SO GOOD to be home! We are enjoying the beautiful sunshine and spring weather :)  Our last day in China was a little crazy so we haven't had a chance to post...we ended up needing to take Kaylee to the local ER and we were there all morning then had to pack up our things and head to the airport. We cannot say enough how much we LOVE Lifeline, our agency, and their in-country guides. They went above and beyond with getting us to the hospital on a very busy day for them - they're the BEST. Rebecca is the one who took us and as we were thanking her for all of her help she said, "First I am your facilitator, but also I am a mother." The ER in China is really crazy - so thankful for America's doctors and hospitals! We couldn't have done it without her helping us! One of the couples that we met from our travel group (the ones that we asked you all to pray for) watched our big kids so Brodie could come with me - SO sweet of Jesus to use them to bless us in that way! Kaylee got a shot to make her stop vomiting and they put some drops up her nose to reduce her fever - she only got sick one more time and was able to keep a bottle down about an hour later...so thankful we went.
We had a GREAT flight home ... thank you all for praying! Kaylee did amazing!!! She slept some and played some -she started throwing toys (which she thinks is so funny and we have overly encouraged it just to get her to laugh) and as soon as she knocked someone in front of us in the head with a plastic play cup, we decided play time was over ;)

We are home and now ready to start adjusting to real life as a family of 6! My mom had lunch made for us when we got here and dinner cooking. She got our laundry started and made our home feel so peaceful to come home to! What a blessing that was! We were able to just focus on getting Kaylee situated and we also got some rest ;) The boys headed out to the yard to PLAY and run around - something they have missed while in China! So good to see them get to do that :) Please pray for Kaylee - we can tell it is so overwhelming for her to now be in a whole new environment. Please also pray for her sleep (she just struggles so much at night time) ...we know that more and more each day she will start to feel comfortable and blossom into who her Heavenly Father created her to be! We will post pictures tomorrow ;) Please also pray for her 1st doctors appointment tomorrow to go well and for wisdom for the doctor about Kaylee's next steps. She still has a fever and cough...Thank you!

Consulate Day

We took our oath at the Consulate today....we leave to come home tomorrow night!!!

At the Consulate trying to get a family picture.....missing one ;)

That's better!

Our Lifeline Travel Group

With Rebecca, Miko and Lee ~ our WONDERFUL Lifeline Guides!!! They ROCK!!!!!!!! We will miss them :) Pray for Lee to accept Christ~ Brod had a talk with her...he bought her a Bible yesterday and she said she would read it! She is excited to read it :) He told her being a Christian will change her life just like it changed ours! She is a sweet girl!

At the Zoo....

Please pray for Kaylee Grace...she has a fever and cough :(  She is not feeling well at all! Didn't really sleep again last night and now that she has this fever I'm wondering if that's why??? She had  low grade fever when she came to us but then it got better...poor girl! Praying she starts to feel much better and that this antibiotic starts to work before our long flight home!!! We all started to feel better so quickly once everyone prayed so we are hoping for the same for her! Thank you!!!

And thank you for praying for our sweet friends~ they said that today went much better! So now we are praying that tomorrow (their last time having to do this test) will be even better!

Our New Friends

We would love it if you will pray for our some of new friends...we have met so many wonderful couples here! We had the best evening last night getting to go out with two other families that we have really connected with. One of them needs prayer so I am asking my prayer warrior friends from home to pray along! They are the sweetest couple - here adopting for the 3rd time and getting 2 sweeties who both have HIV (you can read their AMAZING God story here). Their children have to have SO many medical tests -poor things- and one of them is having to get a certain amount of saliva into a cup to be tested. It took about 3 hours today of Mommy and Daddy working overtime - if they don't produce enough then they will have to have a tube put down their throats to get it out :(  SOOO... let's pray that Jesus will help these sweet little ones produce a TON of saliva in a matter of minutes!!! We know He can do all things and NOTHING is too hard for HIM!

We ran into our friends in the lobby (Tim and Catherine who are adopting a little guy named Benjamin - or BoBo- as they call him). Our big kids love him and think he is the cutest! He of course attached to Kennady ;)  Kaylee has loved watching him from day one as we both got our kiddos at the same time. Today we put her down to see if she would play with him and she did! I think it helped having the squeaky shoes too ;)

Playing ball in the hotel lobby

Our travel group

At Shamian Island shopping - so great to have a FUN day...our big kiddos needed a day to just chill! Check out the big lobster behind them ;)

By the famous statues of American tourists

The boys are playing with BoBo while us parents shop a little ;)

The Chinese people love to stop our kids on the streets and try to talk to them or touch their hair ;)

On our way to dinner

With Tim and Catherine Austin and Mike and Anne Jutt from our travel group at what has become our favorite China restaurant - Sultan - Turkish food ...or Armenian as we would call it back home ;) We love it!

Kaylee is having fun - throwing her napkin at the empty water container to knock it over in the restaurant - I'm telling you...if anyone would like parenting advice, just ask us.....we have taught her to throw food, knock over water bottles in nice restaurants, and wait till you see the video of the sassy attitude we taught her tonight. You know, we're just teaching her all the important stuff first ;)

We all think it's funny...but apparently they don't like this sort of behavior in China because the waitress took the water bottle away from us...but when she wasn't looking we got it back ;)

This is Anne, the Mama and one of her sweeties who will need to have that test I asked you to pray for 

Catherine, BoBo and our kids

Brodie and the Jutts - these are the two I'm asking you to pray for! 

I have mentioned it before...but adoptive parenting is SO different than parenting biological children.  Regardless, I don't think that teaching your child how to have a sassy attitude would be considered good parenting under the adoptive parenting guidelines - but it is pretty stinkin' cute!

And by the way...check out her eyes tracking better!

One Week With Kaylee Grace!!!

It's hard to believe it has been 1 week already with Kaylee! In some ways it just feels like she's been with us forever. Here is what we have learned about our sweet Kaylee so far:

She it itty-bitty (12-18 month clothing - size 4 shoe!)
She loves balls
She has the cutest laugh/giggle ever (although we still have seen only a few laughs where her teeth show)
She learns SO fast
She is CRAZY strong
She knows just what she wants and will clearly let us know ;)
She hates having her teeth brushed and her nails clipped
She won't take anything other than her bottle
She thinks it is so funny to throw things and throws everything we put into her hands
She knows her name and all of our names too - when we tell her "throw it to so-an-so" she does
Her eyes have started to track together sometimes when she is looking at things up close (we were told her Strabismus could be just environmental and she may not need surgery- not that we see the progress her eyes have made in just one week we are wondering if that may be the case with her??? One less surgery would be great!)
She likes the Ergo carrier
She loves to sleep on top of Mama - not just next to her. If she wakes up in the night and I have rolled her off of me, she will crawl back on top of me and hitch her leg over me like I'm a horse - then she goes right back to sleep
She now knows the kids are FUN and she laughs right when they walk in the room and immediately looks for something to throw so that they can retrieve it for her ;)
She let's Brodie play with her and knows that he is the one who makes her bottles and watches him very closely when he is making them.
She finds the most random things amusing and we never know what will make her start to giggle - sometimes we think she is starting to cry (like if there is a loud noise or if she falls...the kids shuffling their UNO cards, opening and closing the curtains, the wheat thins box) but really it is her starting to laugh.

We woke up feeling a little better this morning...THANK YOU all for praying! We also slept better last night...we so appreciate all the prayer! We ended up going on the local shopping trip with our group so that we could get Kaylee some Jade and Pearls for when she is older. It was a CRAZY experience- people everywhere - probably a million or more people in the shopping area that we were in. We got 3 Jade necklaces (one for each of us girls) in the shape of a circle which in chinese means "united family". We also got her some pearls for her wedding day.

Johanson Fam in our shirts that the Shabaglians got us....thank you Shabaglians! So fun!!!

One small section of where we went for the pearls and jade

Kaylee's pearls for her wedding day

Brodie is getting the jade necklaces with Rebecca helping him negotiate 

Hot and sweaty!

Rebecca keeps commenting on how great Kaylee's skin and hair is looking - she has visited Suixi many times and saw her before she was with us

Crazy sea of people shopping

The M n M man at the grocery store

Some of the videos of her yesterday.....

Thank you all again for praying! It means the world to us!!! We feel covered and lifted up :)  Please continue to pray for our health and for sweet bonding :)  3 more days until we head home!!! China has  been such a blessing for us to all see and know more about Kaylee's birth place - but it is hard work (all good hard work) and we are ready to come home and start really adjusting!