A New Week

Well, it is back to work for me in the AM. I know it could not be avoided, but it hurts me to have to go back so soon. It is a new job, and I was only there for 1 month before I had to take a "leave" for the adoption, so there was no other way. I know Matt will have a great time with the kids, and they need that special time as well.

We are all starting to settle into a routine now-although we hope it will not be our normal routine. ChallieJayne has been very sick-pneumonia that will not go away. One ER trip, 2 doctor appointments, 2 rounds of antibiotics, 2 rounds of oral steroids, and 8 breathing treatments per day (all multiple times per day)-not to mention her treatment for an intestinal parasite. That in itself is a part time job. We had to make a medication chart to keep up with everything! We also think she has a couple of food allergies, so we are trying to solve that puzzle as well.

AlinaJayne is still very......"Mothering" to ChallieJayne, but she is doing much better this week. ChallieJayne is finally allowing me to be out of her sight without having a meltdown! Thank you Jesus!

The other "fun" at this house is our "program" to get the girls to sleep upstairs in their own room. Or should I say, AlinaJayne? She has slept with us in our bed since we came home from China over 4 years ago, so this has been tough for her. In fact, she didn't even want to sleep up there with *me* in the room. She wanted all 4 of us to be in our bed downstairs, or all 4 of us in their room. ChallieJayne does not like to co-sleep, so this was not happening! I spent the first 2 weeks home sleeping upstairs with them to get them used to the room-and I spent the last 2 weeks rolling off of the twin bed onto the floor every time I tried to roll over! This week, it is Matt's turn, so I get OUR bed! YAY! His plan is to gradually leave them up there to sleep alone starting this week. Wish us luck! He even "bribed" them by adding a TV and DVD player to their room today. In all fairness, we have our TV on in the bedroom all night, so AlinaJayne is used to that. Plus, ChallieJayne is used to the noise of an orphanage, so this will help her too.

Tomorrow is ChallieJayne's first (of what will be many) dental appointments. She needs a LOT of work. I hope she cooperates-the language barrier makes it tough.

More later. Enjoy the pic.

A little over a week

(Back home-click to enlarge the pics)

 

I cannot believe we have been a family for a little over a week now. So much has happened since we became family of four!

Sweet ChallieJayne has been sick since we met her at the airport, and was diagnosed with pneumonia on Tuesday. She has been on two breathing treatments, an oral steroid and an antibiotic since then. Last night was really rough for her in terms of breathing/coughing, and Mama was awake all night with her. I arm starting to think she has asthma too. Then we found out (but were not surprised) that she has giardia. Anyone familiar with that knows this is not fun. The medication is very nasty tasting, and the treatment is long. We had to have the medication made especially for her by a compounding pharmacist so she will take it. Poor baby has been through so much.

Other than the health issues, she seems to be settling in nicely. Of course there is some competition between her and AlinaJayne, but I'd expect nothing different. They'll get there! She calls me Mama or Mommy, and Matt "Ababa" which is Amharic for Dad. AlinaJayne is "Seesy." I think the cutest thing is what she calls Papa. That would be "Apapa." Like a combination between "Ababa and Papa." It is so sweet to hear her say "I love you" and to recite her ABC's. The accent is too cute!

Mama goes back to work in a week, then Daddy is home for four weeks with the kids. I will miss them, it has been nice to be at home with them, but I know they are in excellent hands! They've got themselves a great Daddy! Which, by the way, AlinaJayne has decided to start calling Matt "Baba" again. This is Mandarin for Dad. Hmmmm...........

Speaking of Dad. We had MY Daddy up for Father's Day dinner on Saturday. We were not able to attend the party at his house on Sunday since ChallieJayne has been sick. I took a lot of fun pics, so do enjoy.

Off to try to sleep a bit tonight.

Check back soon.

(Father's Day Weekend-click to enlarge the pics)

 

Forever Family Day (and the entire weekend too)!

The day FINALLY arrived! Our daughter is finally home from Ethiopia. But keeping true to the drama of our journey, not without some worries.

We knew ChallieJayne's flight was scheduled to land at 3:40PM on Saturday June 12th in Newark, NJ, and that she was being escorted by Ivy, who works for our agency in Ethiopia. We knew she was in good hands. All of the immigration paperwork was done (and done correctly), the POA's were in place to have her escorted to the USA. We left the hotel and took the shuttle to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport at 1:45PM. It should go off without a hitch, right? Sure, if it was another family's life!

We had time to have a quick, last lunch as a family of 3 before heading down to the International Arrivals Terminal to wait for our baby to arrive. We got to the waiting area at 3:00PM, and received an e-mail notice that the flight had landed early a 3:20PM. So we waited, camera ready, AlinaJayne waiting with the stuffed elephant she had for her new sister. At 3:45PM, a rush of travelers came out of U.S. Customs. Nope,she was not in the group. At 4PM, another group came rushing out. We knew we'd be meeting our newest child now! Nope, not in this group. Matt checked the monitor again-yep, the flight had landed. At 4:15PM, another group, this time we even saw the flight crew from Lufthansa. She MUST be coming!

5:00PM came and went, as did another group of travelers through customs. No ChallieJayne. We started to wonder, at what point should we be worried? Who do we call? What can we do on a Saturday anyway? We decided to move to some chairs and figure out what to do next. AlinaJayne had been so good and patient waiting through all of this, way better than we were!

Finally at 5:20PM, we saw what looked like Ivy (we had seen pictures) and a little girl being pushed in a stroller-it WAS ChallieJayne!

She was very shy at first (we had heard from many families who had traveled to get their children how sweet and loving she was...........but she seemed very, very shy and unsure). She really wanted to stay with Ivy. Then Ivy told her "Chaltu, you need to go with them, they are your Mommy & Daddy & Sister." Finally she allowed AlinaJayne to talk to her, then she approached me and felt my face. I allowed her to come to me, and she motioned for me to hold her, so I did. Then, without warning, she kissed me on the cheek. This was a very different experience than it was with AlinaJayne!

Ivy said her goodbye's and it was then that ChallieJayne started to cry for her. She continued to cry as we waited for our shuttle back to the hotel, all the way back to the hotel (in China, people expected this, they knew the Americans were there adopting babies, so they were understanding-here, nobody had a clue, thought we had a misbehaving child), and up until we got into our room. Once she was there, she did stop crying, played with the toys (although she did not immediately take to AlinaJayne), ate a snack and had some juice, and allowed me to give her a bath. The poor baby fell asleep sitting on a suitcase after supper, so Matt put her in bed with him!

We made a 12 hour trip back home on Sunday, stopping briefly so Matt's Mom and my Dad could at least see her (although she never woke up once)! Both of the girls traveled extremely well, even if ChallieJayne never woke up-even when I got her ready for bed after midnight! During the trip back, she decided that AlinaJayne was pretty cool. She even allowed her to play "rock, paper, scissors" with her, AND put her shoes on her! The night before, she wanted NOTHING to do with her!

The entire family slept until 10AM, then headed out to run errands (and to have ChallieJayne's first of two bloodwork appointments). She is settling in nicely, and learning her way around the house. She calls me Mama or Mommy (has NO trouble yelling for me), calls Matt "Ababa" which is Amharic for Dad, calls AlinaJayne "seesy" for sissy, and is absolutely terrified of our youngest cat. Not sure how she will do when the older, grouchy cat and German Shepherd are home on Tuesday! She also randomly tells us "Mommy! I love you!" or "Ababa, I love you." She counts to 10 in English (started doing this by herself, but AlinaJayne has been helping her). She sings songs and speaks in Amharic all day, but mixes in some English when she sings "B I N G O" and "Old McDonald."

Lots of new things around this house. We are so blessed. Enjoy the pics and check back soon.

***Click on the pics to make them bigger*****

(Forever Family Day)

 

("Almost" and Back Home)

 

We're Here!

After a 10.5 hour road trip (including 4 stops and one wrong turn) we are here in Newark NJ. ChallieJayne is on her way here (Via Frankfurt, Germany, which is so appropriate since my Mom's family was from Germany) as of this posting! Her flight is scheduled to arrive at 3:40PM.

During her stop over in Frankfurt, she was able to spend some time with another family from our agency, and she will be sending some pics. It was nice to wake up to a Facebook update from her today confirming she is on the way!

We are about to become a family of FOUR!!! in a few hours.

More later!


(The view from our hotel room)

 

FINALLY!

Well, I have finally put aside my caution and decided it was time to post-CHALLIEJAYNE IS COMING HOME!!

As international adoption goes, this has been a roller coaster. We knew on May 25th that ChallieJayne's embassy appointment for the visa interview would be on June 2nd, and that her homecoming was tentatively set for June 12th. We have been waiting for the final itinerary (which we still do not have)so we wanted to keep things under wraps until we had that. However, our agency assures us that this *is* happening, which means we will leave next Friday, so I simply cannot keep this quiet any longer! I am trusting in the Lord that this will all happen according to His perfect timing.

A couple of other families from our agency were in Ethiopia this week adopting their children, both of who were at the embassy with her during the appointments. One e-mailed me and wrote "Just wanted to let you know Samantha and I saw your little Chaltu at embassy today. Jessica brought her and was raving about what a great personality she has. Afterward we all went to Kaldi's for coffee and Jessica bought her some ice cream. She was having a great time. We wanted to get a picture for you but they didn't allow cameras at the embassy."

Another posted on my Facebook wall just today "Guess who I hung out with in Ethiopia?! Your Chaltu! I held her on the way back from her embassy appt! I learned that she loves: gum, sunglasses and ice cream! Got pics too!"

Can I say WOOOOOOOO HOOOOO???!!!!???

We are so thankful for all the support of our friends and family during this seemingly endless wait. A big thanks to all of the families who have traveled to Ethiopia to meet their children, who have taken photos of our girl for us-those are precious and helped sustain us during the long wait.

There will be more to come. Check back soon!