Jet Lag, Phone Calls, Strep Throat and an ER visit

That pretty much sums up our first two weeks home!

Well, we made it home! The flights from Hong Kong to Chicago to Greenville/Spartanburg were fairly uneventful. Rebecca squealed loudly a couple of times and slept maybe 1.5 hours in a 24 hour period. God, of course, heard our prayers and our flight landed in Chicago one hour early so that gave us even more time to make it through Immigration. Everything with Immigration went quickly and before we knew it, we had our luggage checked again, made it through US security (by the way, having a baby prevented me from having the full body scan! Bucky was not so lucky), found our gate and ate an AMERICAN meal...Chili's never tasted so good.

It was so good to see my mom and our boys when we landed at GSP airport. We had a crew of church members waiting for us at baggage claim as well. We made it home about 5:30 and Becca was asleep by 6 and me and Bucky were not too far behind. Becca's first few nights home were rough. She would go to sleep between 6 and 8 pm, wake up at midnight and play in her crib til 5am and then I would get up with her and give her a bottle and start our day. Thankfully this only lasted two to three nights. Her normal routine now is to go to bed between 8 and 9pm, wake once in the night and need a little comforting and then sleep until 6:30 or 7am. I can't complain about that schedule.

Becca is a sweet, precious baby girl! We have seen her transform from a scared, overwhelmed and confused baby to a peaceful, relaxed and happy baby. This past week heard more jabbering, noticed her copying us (she mostly likes to fake cough if she hears us cough), received an unsolicited smile and today Sasha taught her how to make the Indian sound by patting her hand on her mouth. He showed her how to do that in the car today and tonight, while getting her pajamas on, she began to do it.

I have spent a lot of time on the phone the past two weeks. I have been speaking with our insurance agency, BabyNet (South Carolina's early intervention program), Children's Rehabilitation Services (service providers for special needs children), and the pediatrician's office. We have many evaluations and doctors to visit in the next few months/years. My calendar is filling up and I am trying to not get overwhelmed with all I still need to do to get her the help she needs.

On Saturday my throat began to hurt and I assumed it was just sinus drainage. When I arrived home from church on Sunday, I was running a 101 degree temperature and feeling BAAADDD. I felt so bad that I told Bucky he HAD to take ALL the children with him to church that night because I just couldn't care for them. I was in to see the dr at 9am Monday morning and I tested positive for Strep Throat. I was secretly relieved that it was something as serious as Strep because then Bucky would know that I was not kidding. The doctor offered several days of antibiotic pills or one big shot. I took the big shot and was feeling much better about 36 hours later.

On Tuesday, Bucky and I took Becca to her first pediatrician appointment. Her head circumference and height are in the 5th percentile and her weight is in the 3rd percentile. Because of her small head size, developmental delays and other concerns, the pediatrician is scheduling a sedated MRI on Becca's brain. We will hopefully have that done in the next month. The pediatrician also said she had a double ear infection. We knew she would have ear problems because the her plastic surgeon told us that 100% of his cleft palate babies have tubes in their ears because of chronic ear infections. Becca was prescribed Amoxicillin. WELL, we now know she is allergic to Amoxicillin. About 45 minutes after administering the first dose the porcelain skin on her ears, cheeks, nose and chin turned bright red and hot. I called the on call nurse at the pediatrician's office and she called the on call dr. The dr said to give her Benadryl and take her on to the ER for monitoring. So, around 9pm me and Becca left for the ER. The ER monitored her for a while, prescribed her a new antibiotic and released us around 11:30pm. I am beginning to wonder if my life will ever settle down.

Bucky and I really appreciate everyone who has brought us a meal, folded laundry and bought diapers and wipes. We are truly blessed to call you all friends. Please continue to pray for us!

Visa Appointment

This morning we left our hotel at 7:30 am and then drove to the Garden Hotel (which is on the mainland) to pick up another couple traveling with our group. Our appointment at the US Consulate was this morning at 8:30 am. That all went very smoothly as opposed to our US Embassy appointment in Guatemala for Xan's adoption where I left our passports at our hotel. Bucky and I along with about 12 other families stood, raised our right hands and took an oath that will allow our children to be US citizens once we reach the USA. Rebecca slept through all of it. She has a bit of a rough night last night. At first she had a hard time settling down for bed. She was in her crib talking and rocking and she hit her head on the side of the crib so I put my hand on the crib so that if she did it again she wouldn't hurt her head. Well, she did it again and realized my hand was there and then began rubbing her face on my hand and cracking up laughing. Of course, then I got tickled. I eventually picked her up and rocked her for a little while and she settled down. She woke up once in the night and I rocked her she had a little bit of a harder time falling asleep. Then her nose started running and she is a tummy sleeper and she couldn't breath which made the rest of the night a little restless. I tried to get to sleep on her back, but she refused. So, she was tired enough to take a nap during her Consulate appointment.

Today is our last full day in Guangzhou. Tomorrow we will check out of our hotel at 2:30, but our van that is going to take us to Hong Kong will not arrive until 4:00. So we are going to leave our luggage with the bellhop at our hotel, go to a restaurant for a late lunch and do some last minute site seeing, then meet our driver at 4. We will then drive back to the Garden Hotel on the mainland and pick up the couple I mentioned above. The drive to Hong Kong will take about 2 1/2 hours. We are staying at the Marriott Hotel at the Hong Kong airport for one night and our flight to Chicago leaves Thursday morning at 11:00 am. We are so ready to be home. I can't wait to be home with my boys and my mom.

Please pray for me as I have a million things running through my head that I need to do once we are home to begin getting Rebecca the help she needs. I would be lying if I said this whole doesn't scare the living day lights out of me and if it weren't for the fact that I know that God hand picked Rebecca out for our family, I would likely have already had a nervous break down. There is so much comfort in knowing that He knows what her future holds and He simply is asking me to walk it with her, completely dependent on Him. "He makes all things work together for my good!" Amen.

It worked!

Rebecca woke up one time in the night and I picked her up, gave her a paci and rocked her. Withing 30 minutes we were both back to sleep...thank you Jesus! She even slept until 7:30 this morning.

Today is a fairly slow day, all we have to do is go back to the doctor and have her TB test read.

We had a funny miscommunication yesterday. We went to Pizza Hut yesterday for lunch and I ordered 7Up and I thought the waitress asked me if I wanted it in a cup or bottle. I said I wanted it in a bottle (so I could take what I didn't drink back to the hotel with me). Bucky then ordered our pizza and asked for Pepsi. The waitress got this puzzled look on her face and asked him the same question she asked me. He too responded that he wanted his in a bottle. Turns out we ordered a liter of 7Up and a liter of Pepsi which was delivered to our table in glass pitchers. haha! We paid nearly $9 just in drinks yesterday.

Last night we had dinner with a fellow adoptive couple who also used Nightlight to adopt their 2 year old daughter.We had a wonderful time with them and laughed alot. Their daughter, OH MY GOSH, she is so precious. She has the most dainty and sweet personality. She had us all laughing a number of times.

Learning

Learning what Rebecca wants and needs can be trying. She is so much more patient with us these days though. I don't know if she came up with her own sign language or if someone taught her, but when she wants a bottle she pounds her chest with her fist or flicks her fingers on her mouth. At first she would go from really happy to all of a sudden screaming and pounding her chest and flicking her mouth. Now she does her signs, but doesn't scream as long as we get the bottle fairly quickly. We are also trying to learn what she needs when she wakes in the middle of the night. I was thinking that putting her in bed with me and allowing her put herself back to sleep without me rocking and holding her is what she would want. My thought process there was that she has been putting her self back to sleep for two years now so if I start messing with her it might rouse her and then she won't fall back to sleep...WRONG that baby girl wants to be held and rocked. After nearly two hours of her "trying" to put herself back to sleep, (she wasn't crying, just jibber jabber and rocking herself) I finally picked her up and rocked her and she was sound asleep withing 30 minutes. You live and learn! Again, let me make it clear here that she was NOT screaming herself to sleep, the minute we hear even a wimper we pick her up. We are also trying to expand her diet. Drinking yogurt is really popular hear (and it is really runny so that you can drink it) so yesterday we stopped by a small grocery store and picked some up. We put it in her bottle and she drank most of it. Of course, we are using that as kind of a snack option since she doesn't tolerate solid foods well yet, her formula must remain the main source of nutrition. We brought along baby food from America and she ate the bananas ok but she did not like the apples with cherry. So, we are going to try a few other things today. I know many cleft palate babies can tolerate most solid foods, but she wasn't exposed to them in her orphanage so we are taking it really slow  And she has texture issues because she has only had liquid for two years of her life. She will likely need some Occupational Therapy to overcome her mouth sensitivities. 

We are staying on the island in Guangzhou and it is beautiful here. We are going to take pictures and have someone post them on Facebook. It is very peaceful here, the island is quiet and clean. I would love to live here!

Rebecca made it through her medical appointment yesterday. She knew the moment the scope slid in her ear what was going to happen and her little lips puckered and quivered. I almost cried with her. One of the reports that we received while we were waiting for our travel approval to adopt Rebecca said that she is "a dead pan" for strangers and boy were they right. She would NOT perform at the doctor's office yesterday. For example, we know that she hears because she jumps everytime Bucky coughs, but she would not respond to the squeaky toy the doctor had. The doctor finally asked us, "is she lively at home?". She is stubborn with strangers. We were able to get her exempt from having all of her immunizations redone while we are hear and I am so thankful.

Today is going to be a quiet day for us. We are going to have some of our laundry cleaned and just relax. We will likely do more walking around and sightseeing because the scenery is just majestic hear. We also have to find a supermarket so that we can purchase more diapers and formula. Then, I think we are going to end the day having dinner with another family who is hear that also used Nightlight to adopt.

We made it to Guangzhou!

Yesterday, our hotel in Zhengzhou allowed us a late checkout so we were able to stay in our hotel room until 2:00. But even then, we had an hour to kill before heading to the airport so we walked around Zhengzhou for a while. I believe I now have some idea of how a women feels when she is 30 something weeks pregnant. Carrying an extra 20 something pounds on your abdomen (I have been wearing her in an ERGO baby carrier) is hard work especially when you have to walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to the Notary Public office. WHEW!

Rebecca was such a trooper yesterday. She was so tired on the flight to Guangzhou, but hardly fussed at all. By the time we got to Guangzhou, her diaper had leaked a little, she was hungry and tired, yet she fussed very little. Our guide, who was to be waiting for us when we exited the plane, read the board wrong and was waiting for us at the wrong gate. I don't know if you recall one of our God moments while we were in Germany on our way to get Sasha...We were standing in the Munich airport and had just realized our flight to Kiev has been cancelled. A long line of travelers had formed at the ticker counter. A women approached us, who spoke perfect English, and arranged another flight. WELL, we had a similar God moment last night...Bucky and I were standing in the airport wondering how in the world we were going to contact our guide to find out where she was. Out of no where, a lady approached, who just so happened to speak perfect English, and asked, "Can I help you with something?" AMAZING!!! I had a cell number for our guide and the mysterious lady pulled out her cell phone and called our guide for us. Within 10 minutes we were in a van headed to our hotel. To God be the glory!

Guangzhou is AMAZING! It is a huge, beautiful city of 9 million people. Today, Rebecca has her US Embassy medical appointment where she will have to have a TB test. We have a form that will hopefully allow us to pass on having all her immunization redone at this doctors visit.

Becca has made some really exciting progress the last day or so. Her eye contact is getting much better and not only is she tolerating our physical touch, she is seeking it out and allowing it linger longer. She is precious and you all are going to fall in love with her. She is incredible!

Grieving

Last night was rough, Rebecca has started the grieving process. We knew it was coming, but it is never easy. As with most children, it begins at bedtime. We fed her a bottle and laid her down in her crib and at first she was just real restless and chattering (baby jibber jabber), I left her in the crib thinking she would settle herself and fall asleep. But then the screaming started so I jumped up and picked her up and held her tight, rocked her, and talked to her. She recoiled at my touch, arched her back and began beating herself on the face with her own hands. I then had to hold her precious little arms down so that she wouldn't hurt herself. We both cried and cried. In all it probably lasted about 2 hours and she fell asleep in my arms and I let her sleep in the bed with me. She slept soundly. As I was sitting on the bed rocking my screaming baby it reminded me of how we treat God and the treasure, the abundant life He offers. Our Heavenly Father is bidding us, "Come to me and I will give you rest." yet something in us makes us look back at the filth that He is delivering us from and we want  the filth more than we want His blessings, His adoption, His love.

This morning she is pretty much back to her happy self, she cried a little this morning. We are about to head down to the lobby for the free breakfast buffet. This evening we will fly to Guangzhou and tomorrow she will have a medical exam and TB test. Monday we will have the TB test read.  Tuesday is our VISA application appointment at the US Consulate where we will apply for Rebecca's VISA. Then Wednesday we will go back to the Embassy and pick up her VISA, hire a van to take us back to Hong Kong and Thursday morning we will leave Hong Kong for Chicago. 

Please continue to pray for our precious wonton!

More details...

Now that I am fully rested, I will explain in further detail Rebecca's Gotcha Day.

Our flight from Hong Kong to Zhengzhou arrived on time (around 2:30 pm - remember we are 13 hours ahead of Spartanburg). We made it through Immigration and Customs with out any problems which I believe was a miracle and an answer to prayer. People all around us were having their bags searched and we walked right on through. Not that we had anything bad in our bags, but one was full of baby food for Rebecca that we were afraid might get confiscated. Our guide was waiting for us and had a driver waiting as well. We hopped into the van and drove about 45 minutes to the Zhengzhou's city center. As with most other foreign countries, traffic was crazy and I was so happy someone else was doing the driving. We arrived at the Provincial Affairs building and guess who was waiting for us inside??? Yes, Rebecca. She was very sleepy (she had a 3 hour car ride from her orphanage) and hungry. So, I got to hold her while she took her bottle. Those first few moments with her were overwhelming. I smiled, I cried, I just stared at her. We had to fill out and sign a ton of paperwork giving us guardianship of her. After we left the Provincial Affairs office we got back into the van, with Rebecca in tow this time, and headed to our hotel. We are staying at the Ramada Plaza and it is really nice. While we were getting settled into our room, our guide went on a grocery store run to find more formula for Rebecca. Her main source of food is still a bottle so she gets a bottle just about every 2 1/2 hours. The orphanage, of course, tries to supplement with soft, mushy foods too. So, all that to say, she needs ALOT of formula.

Right now it is 7:00 am in Zhengzhou and precious Rebecca just woke up. She slept very soundly last night. So far the only time she has cried is when she is hungry. Bucky is giving her a bottle as I type. Today we will go back to the Provincial Affairs office and sign the adoption degree, changing Cai Yin Dang - orphan to Rebecca Eden Rogers - daughter. 

If anyone reading this has some time on their hands to do a little research for me (can't do alot of Internet surfing here in China) would you mind to research some practical ways we can help Rebecca cope with her self stimulation habits. Because she was left in a crib without much outside stimuli, she has some self stimulation habits (like shaking her head no frequently). We know that these can't be corrected overnight, but we would be interested in what the "experts" have to say about it and some ideas of how we can begin helping her through those things. Thanks! If you would, please e-mail any finding to juliefaithrogers@yahoo.com

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY!!!!

Rebecca is absolutely precious! Her laugh will melt your heart. So far she has transitioned amazingly, however, bedtime often is the hardest so we will wait and see. Please continue to pray for us as she does have some significant developmental delays as well as signs of neglect. I am not at all saying that I think anyone was mean to her, but the orphanage could not provide her with the one on one care she needs. Tomorrow we will begin all the legal stuff which means paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. I can not figure out how to post pictures to my blog from China, so we are going to e-mail the pictures to someone and have them post them on Facebook for us. We love you all!