A little tired of doctor's visits

I feel like I have been to doctors offices more in the past week than I have in the past year. Oh yeah - I have! Both the older boys had dentist appointments. No cavities. Yay. Carys also had a dentist appointment - just a visual check to look at the missing tooth gap and look for any signs of major decay. (She can't have a cleaning until we find out what is going on with her heart. I guess some conditions require antibiotics prior to any dental work.) The dentist said it's been missing for a while as the gap has closed in quite a bit. She said they don't do anything until her big teeth come in. No visible signs of decay. She will have a full cleaning and exam in March.

Friday I had the follow up with the international adoption doc. I asked her to tell me twice what was going on with her heart. According to the chest xray it appeared the upper right part of her heart was enlarged. That would be the atrium. The doc said that makes her think it was a valve or a shunt. However - she was surprised that the EKG was completely normal. If part of the heart was enlarged she felt that would make the EKG irregular. She did say it is sometimes hard to get an accurate picture from a chest xray because a child moves and breathes as the xray is taken and it can alter it. I think the only reason they did this step was to see if she needed to be fit in the children's heart clinic immediately or if their first available appointment was fine. We will be going on the 10th for the ultrasound and the doc said they will be able to tell everything from that and will sit down right then with us and explain everything and what, if anything, needs to be done. I don't feel hugely worried as she appears so dang healthy. She runs around with the other kids and doesn't get winded or change color. The doc seemed to agree that if it were something serious she should show signs and that she would be so huge. She is a robust little girl!!

All her blood work came back good. Negative for all the diseases they checked for, no anemia, and lead level is 4. Anything under 10 is considered to not need treatment and under 5 is considered not to have long term effects. She said now that she is here it will continue to drop. Her blood titers showed she has no immunity to Hep B. That means she was not immunized in China like the orphanage said. I thought this would be the case as in her booklet all the vaccine notations were marked with a "chop". A red stamp with the docs name. Except for the Hep B notations. These were hand signed in a different hand from the rest. Also others on my orphanage yahoo group have had the same thing happen. Luckily though she had immunity to everything else meaning the vaccines were effective. So she just had to have the Heb B vaccine and we went ahead and got the Hep A one out of the way too. She had gained a pound since she has come home. LOL She likes to eat! She has this weird bump on her eye that we are to keep an eye on. She might need to go to the dermatologist for it. It wasn't in her referral pics so the doc said it is probably a wart or some other long name. Gross. She finished her meds for the Giardia. They will do two retests in the next couple weeks to make sure it is gone.

I think that was about it. She continues to get used to her new environment. She is so mellow and so sweet. We are all quite enamored with her!

Friday night we had yet another doctors visit. I had to take Caden to the after care place. He has strep throat. Blah. I really hope the rest of us don't get it! Started him on antibiotics and he already feels better today. Cade has really bad eczema on the backs of his knees and the crooks of his elbows. We use Elidel to keep it at bay. He hasn't had a break out in a while so we haven't used it. He let it get so bad before telling me!! He had scratched himself bloody and raw so I asked the doc at the aftercare place if she could refill our Elidel prescription. She did but when we got to the pharmacist they told us that our insurance requires prior authorization for that. How stupid is that? So they have to fax a form in to the doc to sign and then it goes to our insurance who has to approve it. Shouldn't the prescription be approval enough? I mean they wouldn't give it to us if we didn't need it. So now we have to wait while poor Cade is still scratching. I am using cortisone but it is not very effective. At least he is on antibiotics for the strep so maybe he won't get a skin infection. Of course all this could have been avoided had he told me before it got so bad. Or if I had remembered to refill it before he had another flare up. Sigh.

We are busy this weekend around the house. We are gearing up for Kyan's 4th birthday on Tuesday, trying to clean up our messy abode, working on Cade's Manatee project for school, and trying to keep Quinn under control. It's not a full moon - what is up with that? Ah - I see it was a new moon on the 26th but this is already the 31st. Hmmmmm....... Sometimes I feel as if I am the mother of a werewolf. I can usually pinpoint full moon and new moon to the day based on my eldest moods. Double sigh.

No pics tonight. Will have lots after Ky's birthday.

Happy Birthday Callie!!

Yesterday was our sweet Callie's 3rd birthday! She is growing so fast. She wanted a "Princess" party so we did a Cinderella theme and I made a princess cake. Although it looks more like a '50's prom queen. Ah well. Callie loved it. Here are some pics from the big day.
The princess cake
The skirt is the cake part.
We had pink chocolate lollipops
and teeny tea sets.
The birthday princess.
The real Callie!
Callie is mad because she doesn't want sister in her pictures!
With the bribe of a lollipop she quickly puts on a happy face!
Not fighting - Callie is trying to put her arm around Carys.
Cade jumps in.

Carys having some "tea".
Singing happy birthday.Blowing out the candles.
Fav pic of Quinn. My mom is going to say he needs a haircut when she sees this!
Fav pic of the girls!

Hospital tests, Giardia, heart issues, and one sweet girl!

Carys has been adjusting so nicely. She is so mellow and such a sweet girl. With Callie as wild as she is the two of them balance out nicely. The have some sister issues occasionally but are really doing quite well. Carys is eating well and sleeping well and loving her new brothers and sister. She is having fun with all the new toys and picking up a few words in English. She can say mama and daddy and knows who is who. She says milk, more, baba (sippy cup), bye bye and hi. She repeats tons of words. She calls fruit by their different Chinese names but will repeat what we call them in English. She understands a ton of what we are saying.

Last Friday we went to the hospital for all of Carys's tests. She had her blood work done (they redo all the tests they did in China and do a full work-up), a bone age xray (of her wrist to determine approximate age), a chest xray to check out her heart (because of the murmur), and an EKG (also because of the murmur).

Carys took it all like a champ. She was so good and sat so still for everything. Even her blood work! She whimpered but did not cry. She showed so much courage I treated her with a big pink frosty cupcake. So we headed out to the car and I go to get her out of the stroller and (I am such a terrible mom) whacked her head on the trunk of the van!! I can not believe she didn't cry the whole time at the hospital for all those tests and I whack her head and make her cry. I felt SOOOOOO bad! But she stopped crying quickly when I held out her ooey gooey cupcake. So I buckled her all in and I am about to start the car and she starts crying this gut wrenching cry. I look back to discover .... the top has fallen off her prized cupcake! I picked it up and tried to show it to her but by that point she was utterly heart brokenly crushed. It was the saddest thing ever. She cried for a while then just gave up and went to sleep poor thing.

We heard on Friday afternoon that she has Giardia. A stomach parasite that she got from drinking untreated water at the orphanage. It doesn't affect her as her body is so used to it but if she were to pass it to us it would be nasty. Luckily it is only passed by her poop so we are being extra hygienic while she is being treated and skipping the baths with the other kids. They'll retest her after she finishes the meds to make sure it's gone. This wasn't a huge surprise as most of the other kids from her orphanage were coming home with this. Not a huge thing. Just something to be taken care of.

We got her bone age results and her birth date is accurate. She is just a big girl! 40% on the American charts! The doc has referred us to a cardiologist for her heart. I'm still a bit confused about what is going on with that. We see a International Adoption specialist when we first are home from China. She is just much more thorough with the testing and knows signs of things to look for in orphanage kids. That being said the practice is not our favorite. All communication is through the nurses. Our regular doc always makes the calls himself. No way would he leave it to a nurse to call and tell us our daughter might have issues with a heart valve!! So anyway - I am not sure what is going on. I don't know if they saw something on the chest xrays that leads them to think it may be a valve - like could they see a valve that looked weird? Or did the chest xray look ok - so maybe now they need a closer look at the valves? At any rate they sent all the info to the kids heart center at the Children's hospital and they said they would see us on Feb 10th. I am assuming if it was something hugely serious they would see us sooner? I asked the nurse and I think it sounds more precautionary than anything. Let's hope so. We see the doctor on Friday to go over all the testing we have had done. After that I am hoping we will be able to switch to our regular doctor.

I am a little miffed that the orphanage did not disclose any of this to us. It sure would have been helpful to know what testing they had done and if they knew what was going on. Ah well.

She is the sweetest thing ever and so cuddly. We just love her to pieces! Here are a couple pics. We are having camera trouble so I don't have a ton.
The aftermath of hospital tests and the infamous cupcake episode.
Bruise on her forehead from hitting her head on the trunk. *sniff*
She had to try a glove on her nubby. We use these to change her poopy pull-ups so we (hopefully - fingers crossed) don't get Giardia.
Babies piled up in the bed.
Cade made the kids a picnic at the teeny table.
Cade is serving them out of the "market".

Back to our regularly scheduled programing

It's amazing what a little extra sleep can do for your disposition! Quinny (our early bird) is spending the weekend with a friend so I got to sleep in some.

I have a great picture I intended to post here of the three little kids all piled up and sleeping in our bed but the camera card is missing! Some child has been playing with the camera. Will hunt it up and promise to post it soon.

I was also going to post a pic of Carys in her Sunday best but I just looked over and she has stripped down. (How can she do that so fast?!). We went to church for the first time today. Kyan, Callie, and Carys are all in the same church class. We haven't been in 3 weeks since we went to China and it was someone new in there and I think we threw her off coming in with 3 at once. LOL (Plus we were late - will we ever get used to getting so many kids ready? Not that we were really punctual before....)

Carys did very well and did not cry at all. I'm not positive that was a good thing. It was a convenient thing but with the whole bonding process going on you worry a little when they have no issues separating from you. I think though in this case it was maybe (hopefully) because Callie and Kyan were in there. I was peeking in the window and saw her realize we were gone. She was looking all over for us and looking sad then she noticed Callie and went and stood next to her. She was all smiles when she saw us when we were picking her up. I think that's a good sign.

This was Carys's first experience with a group of other kids (besides her orphanage friends) and at first it was like she had a little fan club. Three or four kids were absolutely amazed at her hand. Or lack of hand. I was about to say something to break the ice when one little girl says "Why she only have one hand!?" We have found through Callie that little kids want to know 2 things. 1. Did something bad happen. 2. Does it hurt. So I knelt down and held Carys's little arm and said how she was born that way and how it doesn't hurt and they looked a little longer and then seemed fine with it. I think the teacher felt a little awkward at first (she was an older lady) but handled it well and said she would be able to do anything the other kids do. I think a lot of adults are thrown off at first when kids say something. Parents in particular seemed mortified. But seriously little kids are so curious and so honest it is just the most natural thing in the world for them to notice and comment on things like that. The girls are going to take theirs cues from us about this so we just keep it light and factual. And once we explain it has always become a non issue with the other kids. Honestly I think it is more the adults that have issues worrying that it is going to be a "disability" or "difficulty" when it really isn't at all. It doesn't take long though before our girls show them whats what. Including us! I knew they would be good with what they have being that way from birth, but they constantly amaze me.

I am off to print out some maze pages for my kids. Kyan has a maze book that he doesn't want to share because "Jesus gave it to him". Whaaaaaat? I told him I thought I bought it at the bookstore but he could not be convinced. I also told him that if Jesus did indeed give him the book he would want him to share but that didn't go over well either. Hmmmm. Strange child. So I will just print a bunch and happiness shall reign again.

I promise to post that pic as soon as I find the camera card. Or buy a new one. The pic is on the internal memory as well. Just have to get it off there.

Oh, and Mike is at a movie right now and when he gets back I get to go. Yay! What a nice little break. What ever shall I see?

Oh my. I just noticed Caden has fallen asleep at 4:45 in the afternoon. He is never going to sleep tonight. Time to wake him. As he always says to me "Wakey wakey eggs and bacon!!"

Insulted

Can I rant just a little more about preschool? Well I am anyway.

So as I was writing my post last night I was being sent an e-mail from Kyan's teacher at preschool (also the education director). She basically stated that the school would not accept all three of my children in the same class next year. She felt my girls needed to be in the "younger" class. Let me just say the class I wanted them in has a cut-off of May 31st of this year. Meaning the children must be three by that time. Callie turns three in a couple weeks and Carys March 14th so they are both well within the age range for the class and would most likely not even be the youngest. I signed them up for school Dec 1st and they are just telling me this now. Two days after meeting Carys for the first time. The co-teacher - would have been their teacher next year was all "Oh, she's missing her whole hand?" and to be honest I don't think she even realized Callie was missing fingers until then. I am left to assume that for some reason they thought my girls couldn't keep up with their peers? Now I could be completely jumping to conclusions but what the hell?! They place twins in the same class and I have a friend with triplets who looked at the school and the kids would have been in the same class. So what else am I to think? Do they think they are "disabled" because of their hands or somehow delayed because they were institutionalized? I simply can not fathom any other reasoning. If it was just that they didn't want the girls in with Kyan (which in my opinion is stupid and should be MY decision anyway) then they could have offered the girls that class and Kyan the afternoon class - the one with older children. But nope - we were not given that option. This makes the school impossible for us as I would not be able to get childcare for the kids when I had to work in each of their classes. Now none of this really matters as we had already decided to send the kids somewhere else but I have to say I am offended. They don't even KNOW my girls! We are constantly being told by Callie's teachers (at a different preschool - one we LOVE but that will not work for next year) how amazing she is and how her fine motor skills are even better than many of the kids in their older class. She is so smart and social and just loves school. I am constantly being amazed by Carys and just how much she can do. The kid can even dress herself! Kyan has issues with that and here she is missing half an arm and can do anything she sets her mind to. No matter how they came up with their reasoning and even if it has nothing to do with the girls, I have put so much time and money into that school that I am just completely amazed and insulted. All I can say is that they had better give me back my $150 registration fee that I paid or I am going to be majorly miffed.

So there it is. Now I have to put up with them for the remainder of the school year while Kyan is there. Oh joy! I thought about pulling him out but don't want to punish him because of my bitterness so I will just suck it up. I am having a really hard time letting go of my anger though and not taking it as a personal affront.

Like I said - it works out for the best. I stopped by our Y and they happen to have classes where all three kids can go at the same time. Cal and Carys in the 3 year old class and Ky in the 4 year old class. Plus it is 30 minutes longer! Yahoo. And I don't have to buy snacks umpteen times a year for the whole class, or clean the building, or participate in mandatory fundraisers, or be on a committee, or work in the class half of my life. And to boot the kids go to swim class once a week, plus get gym and Adventure Center time. Sounds great to me!!

Tired

I am still SO tired!! I won't be posting pictures tonight so if that's all you are after you can stop reading now. ;) I've taken quite a few Flip-Cam videos but not nearly enough pictures since we got back. I feel like I have been walking around in a daze. I am looking forward to this weekend when I can maybe catch up on some Zzzzzz's.

Carys has done really well with the transition. She and the younger 2 kids are a riot. She just follows them around and chatters in Chinese. The other day at preschool Kyan told his teacher that his new sister only talks in Chinese. So they asked what he says to her and he said"Well I don't talk Chinese." Too funny.

Speaking of preschool can I rant for a minute? Prepare yourself. It's a long one.

The preschool Kyan goes to is the one both my older boys attended. It is conveniently located right around the corner. We love the teachers and the school but the only problem is it is a Co-op. Which means that the parents are hugely involved. Which is great. To a point. This is our 5th year there and each year the amount of time involved has increased hugely. So there are a certain amount of days when you have to go in and work in the classroom, you have to be on a committee, and there is the annual cleaning day. Not to mention about 5 million fund raisers some of which you are obligated (required) to spend time and money on. Plus the tuition is actually MORE than the other non-co-op preschools in the area! We had sent Kyan there this year cause I thought it would be fun to meet new people - one good thing about a co-op is you really get to know the other moms. However - I am the only one with a bizarre amount of kids as no one else with this many is stupid enough to go to this time-suck of a school. So we have not had ONE SINGLE play date from there as no one wants to play with my million children apparently. Hmph!

So I was already disillusioned when the straw that broke the camels back came. We missed the very mandatory annual cleaning day at the school because we were in China bringing home our new child. Let me just say in a side rant that this cleaning day is the stupidest thing ever! They have the entire school show up at once to do it. So it is so packed out you can hardly move. Every parent I have EVER talked to there has said they would much rather just chip in and have a cleaning service come. I have attended every single cleaning day when my other kids were there including one where I was 8.5 months pregnant. Yes - they even made me go that time. On those days if a parent didn't show up they usually had a take home job like take home a bin of toys and sterilize it. No biggie. So here we are not home even a week and dealing with jet lag, and the kids and me having colds, and I get an e-mail from the co-chair saying I can either pay $50 for missing cleaning day (and yes they knew why we missed it) or for my "take home" project I could spend the day cleaning out the social hall closet. Now this "closet" is like a big huge room with all sorts of stuff including ride on toys! "Take home" project? What - am I supposed to form a black hole that will suck the "closet" into my home? I was beyond irritated. Not to mention that this year my committee is "Publicity". The head of my committee showed up while we were in China wanting us to make and place signs for the school open house. Less than 1 week away. With absolutely no notice. I think she was really put out that we weren't here. Again - was I supposed to magically transport home from China to perform this task that we had no idea we even had to do? Who am I? Jeanie?

(Can you sense how bitter I am right now?)

So anyway - now we are looking into preschool options for next year. The kids are close enough in age that they can all go together. After 10+ years of ALWAYS having at least one child at home at all times I really really really want a couple hours a week to myself! I absolutely love the preschool Callie goes to but it is farther away and there isn't a class they can do together. The one we want that is close to us and really good is kind of hard to get into (because so many people want to go there) and I have three I need to get in so we will see. It would be an ideal situation. They get the kids in and out of the car, no committees or cleaning days or mandatory fundraisers..... what a dream. Why oh why did we not send Ky there this year?! That way we would have been sure to get them in next year. I will be a stress bucket until we get them all signed up somewhere. Fingers crossed for the school we want!

OK sorry for the rant. It's been brewing for some time.

So now back to Carys. We took her to her arrival exam today at the international adoption doctor. We had a bit of a shock/surprise when the doctor informed us she has a pretty significant heart murmur!! The doctor did not seem hugely concerned as her color and size are good, the heart beat is regular, and her femoral artery pulse is strong and steady. She did say though that she wants us to have it checked out to make sure no valves are involved since it is so loud. She said many times kids out grow these things and no intervention is needed. This is of course what we are hoping/praying for. We go next week for a chest xray and EKG and will go from there. She seems healthy as a horse which is comforting. This is one of those things you have to prepare for when you adopt internationally but China is usually really good about reporting things like this so we were caught off guard a little. Even our doctor was surprised it wasn't in her file. So - please keep her in your prayers that this will either be a non-issue or at least something easily fixable.

She did well at her exam but did not like having her ears cleaned out (good grief I have never seen that much ear wax in my life *shudder*) and they tried to do her blood work which was a no go. She only has the one arm and it did not want to give up any blood. Since we have to go to the hospital for the tests anyway I asked her to stop and we would get someone from peds or the NICU to come down and do her blood work. Plus I can pump her up with fluids before time. Poor thing. She was so sad. She bounced back quickly though and was chipper this afternoon. She has been sleeping very well so far. Hallelujah! Callie STILL doesn't sleep well! It's a long weekend with MLK day being on Monday. Unfortunately the kids are out of school but Mike is not off work. Wah! I'll try to get some pictures taken and posted this weekend if I can ever get my energy back. ;)

HOME

We are home! Now if we can just get Quinn out of the Detroit airport where he and my niece are stuck for the night we will all be together! I am just too tired to post more but will update just as soon as I get some rest!

We fly home tomorrow!!

Can't wait to see the kids and introduce Carys! Today we shopped and went to the US consulate for the little ceremony and we picked up Carys's visa and the paperwork we hand over to immigration when we get to the US. Sooooooo glad to finally have her with us and be done with paperwork!

This will be the last post til we get home as we are leaving so early in the morning we are going to pack up the laptop now.

If you have been following along would you please leave a comment? We would love to print that out and let Carys see how many people were thinking about her! You don't have to have a google account - you can just use the anonymous selection. Please please please.

Here are a few pics to tide you over:

Cade and a baby from our travel group.

Carys and two kids from our travel group on the White Swan "red couch"
Carys rocking the stringing beads. While I was sitting there thinking about how to show her how to do it she starts popping them on. Is this kid cool or what!

Will post when we get back. Prayers for safe travel are much appreciated!! Thanks for following along!

Out and about in Guangzhou

OK I totally crashed out last night before I had a chance to blog. Here's a recap.

We had a nice day out and about in Guangzhou. Mike had to go to the consulate at 8am to sign and notarize the vaccination affidavit. (If you are an I800 family waiting to travel be sure to bring this document even if your agency tells you that you don't need it! It took Mike three hours to get this done! Seriously though - if the consulate wants this why don't they put it on your document checklist!!!!!)

While Mike was at the consulate Caden and Carys and I walked around the island and did a little shopping. We can back to meet Mike and then picked up where we left off. After lunch we went to Yun Tai Park. We went here last time we were in Guangzhou and loved it. Caden enjoyed it but I was sad to see the huge greenhouse structure (which was so cool last time) was under construction/renovation. We still had a great time. It was a beautiful day. We walked up 18.5 million steps to the top of the mountain and were treated with a great view of the city. By the time we got back it was almost six and Caden wasn't feeling well and had a little fever. He has picked up Carys's cold and has been sniffling and coughing the past few days. We've started him on the antibiotics we brought for him so hopefully he will perk up quickly. So anyway, we stayed in the rest of the night so he could rest. And so I could crash out early. ;) Mike brought us partries from the White Swan bakery for dinner.

This morning we are going to the Pearl/Jade market to get some pearls and a jade bracelet for Carys to have when she is older. Then we are going to the shopping street that is off the island. The guide said all our paperwork was fine at the consulate so today we have to go to a little ceremony there and get her Visa. Yay! That will be the last thing we have to do here for the adoption and we will head home early in the morning. We will miss China but I am so excited to see Quinn, Kyan and Callie!! I have missed them so much!!

Here are some pics of our day in no particular order as we have to run:


The kids love these koi ponds

Cade strollering as he didn't feel well

Carys's loves the fishies

She wasn't sure about the whole walking on grass thing. I think she wasn't sure what it was!

Mickey mouse garden clock

I think caden thought this statue was going to fall on him

Made it to the top of the mountain

Up the mountain we go

Mike and Snoozy Susie

Can you see Caden crawling combat style so he can pop out and scare Mike?

Gaint rock about to eat Caden

Ostrich tree

Big tree on Shamian Island

Cade wanted me to post a pic of his french fires. he was very excited to have french fries!