COC

Yeah!!!!!! Sofie received her Certificate of Citizenship (COC) in the mail today. It is the document that we need to apply for her passport and then we are free to travel back home to Canada whenever we want!!! I am so relieved :)

Pics!!!

Had to share these as they are toooo funny!!

She is wearing her sister's helmet and swim goggles :) She makes me laugh all the time!!!!

Having fun!!!!!

Not much new to report. Jim did two 24 hour shifts in three days. Sofie was very angry with him because he was gone so much. Needless to say both children where not the easiest to deal with the last few days. I am glad it is over....until the next 24 hour shift. We did have a pretty good day today....rough start this morning but we all turned it around this afternoon. I even got some weeds pulled with some help from my shadow. I haven't been able to get out in the gardens like I normally do.  I had forgotten how calming and soothing working in my flower beds makes me. I missed it!! I still have a ton of weeds and at this rate I think the snow will get them before I do. I almost have all my flowers planted, no tomatoes this year :(

Every day gets a little better

Sofie had her Dentist appointment today. It was great news. Her teeth actually don't look that bad. There was nothing there that required immediate attention. She may end up having four molars pulled due to cavities but her front tooth is fine can stay. He said that there was nothing there that looked painful so we will wait to have her teeth cleaned, X-rays and the molars pulled until September. That way she will be completely recovered from her other surgeries. She will have to have general anesthesia to have the dental work done :(

We had a blast today!! It finally stopped raining so we could get outside and have some fun. My house is a mess, my garden and flowers are a mess.......but I have two beautiful princesses who like to chase bubbles :)

The happenings at our house

It has been almost a week since my last post. It has been a crazy week. I am not even sure how or what to say, so much has gone on. We have some health issues going on in our extended family. Yesterday we drove up to Duluth and met Jim's Mom, Dad, Sister and her family. I was nice to see everyone even if it was only for lunch and Sofie as usual did awesome, until the drive home. She saved her melt downs for then...at least it didn't happen at lunch!
I am feeling a little overwhelmed today. Sofie has become extremely clingy, to the point that I cannot be more that a foot away from her without her screaming bloody murder. Ainsley is having some problems adjusting to a new sibling now that school is out and I am feeling tired and run down. I found out just over a week ago that my Aunt who I haven't seen in ages passed away after a long battle with cancer. Last night I found out that my Uncle who lives in British Columbia also passed away unexpectedly. It was kind of a sad day today. The last time I saw him was last August when I drove up to Thunder Bay for my Aunt's funeral, his wife. He leaves behind two wonderful daughters and two grandsons and he will be missed tremendously.

Sofie, last week, paid a visit to the ENT Surgeon and a General Surgeon. Wednesday we have our appointment with the Dental Surgeon. She loves going to doctor's offices. She has a blast there. We also found out that she is Vitamin D deficient which is a common occurrence in international adoption and she has some hearing loss in both ears. All her immunization titers came back good, her lead levels were great and she has a bug in her stool :( She is now on an antibiotic three times a day, a Vit D tablet, Calcium, acidophilus and a multi vitamin. She takes all of them like a trooper. No fuss with the nasty tasting antibiotic and she even swallows the Vit D with water.

We will not be able to get all of her surgeries done on the same day. The dental stuff will have to be on another day. July 19 she will have ear tubes, a lip revision, a palate repair and an umbilical hernia repair. Poor thing...she will be in the hospital at least two nights maybe three. The surgeon is hoping that the ear tubes will drain out some fluid from her ears and her hearing will improve. We won't know until it is done. He also thought that the palate wasn't as wide as we had originally feared so it should be a straight forward repair. He explained her lip revision as more cosmetic than a surgical repair. Sometimes they repair wide clefts and then go back 6 months later and fix it up and do a cosmetic revision. This, he explained, is how they will treat Sofie's lip. He felt that the incision shrunk up when it was healing and she probably has an abscess in one of the sutures. I was so happy that he thinks he can redo the lip.....and then I thought about it that night and I got very worried and sad. I am torn. I know that growing up as a girl and having a facial scar will be difficult for her. Kids can be cruel whether intentionally or through curiosity and it affects your self esteem. Life is hard enough as an adolescent and teenager so I was elated that he could help minimize the scarring. I then I looked at her sweet face :) I so hope that the lip revision doesn't change her smile or the twinkle in her eye when she laughs. I absolutely love that little face just the way it is and part of me wants nothing to change. Any parent who has a child with a cleft lip who has had to have a surgical repair know exactly what I am talking about. You fall in love with that sweet little face no matter what and it is very stressing to know that it is going to change and how your child looks is going to change. I know that Sofie's face isn't going to totally change like an original repair does, but I still don't know how it will look. I know we are doing the right thing, I just hate the uncertainty of the whole thing. I know some of you are thinking that I am over analyzing this......and then some of you totally get it :)

I read a blog post of a friend who has also adopted recently and I belong to a Facebook group of families that have recently adopted. Those of us with kids already in the home when we adopted have noticed the same thing. We all and our agencies all concentrated so heavily on attachment and bonding in our children, but, they all left out the part about how to deal with siblings in the home after adoption. All the literature tells you how to prepare your child for the impending adoption but not how to help them after you are home. They totally dropped the ball on this one. It is so different that traditional sibling rivalry. You have one child who is feeling left out and another who doesn't speak the same language who is an almost three year old, with a three year old mentality who is emotionally and physically about 1 1/2 years old. WOW! I am not having many issues in the adoption area but a ton in the sibling rivalry area and yes I have set aside time to spend with out eldest child just me and her. As soon as we are home we go right back to the same. Don' get the wrong idea, Ainsley adores her sister...sometimes too much. It is just so hard for her to figure out where she fits into everything now. Sofie is also just learning how to be a sister so she is unable to give Ainsley the love she requires from a sibling. We are making slow progress though and I know we will get through this. Sofie now occasionally hugs and kisses Ainsley and this just makes her day. She is sooooo happy. Ainsley is a sweet, loving, little girl and I know that we will work this out as a family. I just don't know how yet.....and then there are moments like this and you know that everything will be OK :)

And last but not least.....a song

4 Weeks

It just dawned on me today that it has been four weeks since Sofie joined our family. I cannot believe that 4 weeks has gone by so quickly. I cannot believe how much joy she has added to our lives. There simply are no words that can express it properly....you just have to see the smile and hear the giggle in person to understand :)

It was also Ainsley's 7th birthday party over the weekend....a huge Happy Birthday to my sweet, lovable daughter!!

We had a water slide party and did some face painting!!!

First Doctor's Appointment

Tomorrow is Sofie's very first doctor's appointment since we have been home. We have a 2 hour appointment at the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic. They will test her for all kinds of possible infections and test to see if she has an immunity built from any of the vaccines she received in China. I am very nervous and scared. I am unsure as to how Sofie is going to react to heading out to another clinic. She didn't like the one in China very much!! We are fortunate to have so much information about her prior medical history to give them. I hope it all goes well and they don't find anything at all.

When I look at her now, I am totally amazed at how far she has come, not just with us, but how far she has come since her surgery in China and the illnesses before that.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to share the pictures or not, but, I decided to show the world what an amazing little girl Sofie is and how hard she fought to get better.

Sofie was 9 months old when her lip repair was done. These pictures are taken at that time.

This laugh is ever present in our house now :)

I am one cool looking fairy with an attitude!!

She is completely adorable and mesmerizing. We are so lucky that we all found each other.

Wish us luck tomorrow :)

Growing up way too fast!!

My oldest little sweet pea is growing up too fast for her mother's liking. Ainsley had her dance recital last night and when she came out on stage I was blown away by how grown up she looked.....of course the makeup and hair helped. It was more than that though. She had a poise and grace on stage. She held her head high and smiled the whole time and did her absolute best. They were so cute. The recital was held in a high school auditorium complete with balcony and it was packed. They just walked out on stage and danced their little hearts out in front of a lot of people. I was so proud of her!!!

Ainsley and her friend!!

Sofie had a blast at her sister's recital. We weren't sure how she would do as it was in a large auditorium that was packed full. She screamed that whole way to the hall and calmed down as soon as we got there. She was mesmerized by the dancers and our seats were in the first row so she had her own stage and she just danced the night away. So her are is a video of our little ham!!!!!

Tomorrow is our first post adoption placement visit. We have six visits that we have to do over the next five years. It includes a visit from our social worker and she submits a report and photos of all of us to the CCCWA in China. Quite a feat to put together a mere week and a half after getting home. Sofie also has her appointment at the University of Minnesota Adoption Clinic. They will go over her file and  draw blood etc and etc. She will get a full physical....should be fun!!!

I also received all the information on Sofie from Love Without Boundaries. They are a charity that works with her orphanage to help get kids ready for and pay for any surgeries that they may require. They paid for Sofie's lip repair. We finally got some answers as to why she is so small and doesn't have a lot of muscle. She was a very sick little baby before her surgery. She was severely malnourished,vomited up formula, had laryngitis, bronchitis, suffered from asthma which required nebulizers, and was diagnosed with patent foramen ovale. This is a common heart defect which usually heals itself. She had fevers for which they couldn't determine the origin and they were worried she would contract pneumonia in the hospital so she was discharged back to the healing home. LWB operates healing homes where they look after the vulnerable, ill children both pre and post surgical. At any time, any type of infection could have been deadly for little Lu Jing Jing. She is a fighter!!! She fought to stay alive and best of all, I have a picture of her before her lip repair and she has the same awesome, full face, glowing smile that she has now. It was always there, even when she was sick.
 I am grateful to LWB for the information that they provide, but, I am angry at the Chinese Government for not providing this information to adoptive parents. None of this seems to be done in the best interest of the child. Why would you not want to give any and all medical information to prospective parents at the time of referral. It is all political. It makes me very angry. Just do what is right.

I am very thankful for all that I have, for my family and my friends. I am very grateful for how hard this  sweet little girl has fought to survive and I will do everything I can to make sure that she gets everything she needs and all the medical help she requires. We are taking one day at a time.....the awesome smiles really help too :)

More Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of our little sweet pea :)

Our first bike ride

Guacamole......yummy!!!

My first corn on the cob

My Cabbage Patch Doll......remember these Auntie Kimmie :)

Tea party with my sister

Good times, great memories...............just wanted to share them :)