Grandma and Aunt Sarah Come to Visit Lily

Grandma Ethel and Aunt Sarah visited us last weekend. Lily was spoiled rotten and had so much fun!



Reading with Grandma Ethel









Playing with Aunt Sarah

Lily"s First Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Today was Lily's first trip to the pumpkin patch. She was bit confused at first as to why we were walking around a field with a lot of orange round things. But after a while she discovered that it was fun to sit on those orange round things.

Lily celebrates the Moon Festival

While the Chinese celebrated China’s Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing, Lily munched on mooncakes, a Chinese pastry commonly eaten during the festival. We got together with the other families with children from Lily’s orphanage and sent several boxes of these goodies to the children there so they could partake in the celebration as well. While Lily loved the interesting flavor of these famous pastries, John and I took a pass. It must be an acquired taste!

Kids in orphanage enjoying mooncakes

What is the Moon festival?

The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on September 14th in the year 2008. Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.

Summer Fun

Feeding the chipmonks in Colorado










The last month of summer was filled with fun and bonding. Pamela was offered a great new job that will allow her to utilize her talents and more importantly will be home every night with Lily. She was also able to spend another month bonding with Lily without the almost daily grind of doctor appointments.

Lily and Pamela took their first mother/daughter road trip to the Colorado Rockies to stay with Pamela’s friend Cathy and her little boy, Lucas. The two moms exchanged “mom stories” during their road trip to Estes Park while the kids jabbered, played, and shared treats in the back seat. Lily did great on the flight to and from Denver and entertained her seat mates with her giggles and infectious smile. But she missed her daddy. And he missed her too.




Cathy and Lucas











The weather in Seattle finally warmed up enough to enjoy the summer evenings outdoors. Dad has introduced Lily to blackberries on their nightly walks. By the time they get home Lily is covered in purple juice!



Berry face










We attended John’s annual company picnic where Lily enjoyed the food and rides at the Family Fun Park. Her favorite ride was the bumper boats!














As hard as we tried, we couldn’t get through the rest of summer without more medical issues. Labor Day weekend started and ended with two trips to the emergency room and surgical procedure done in the ER due to infection on Lily’s ear. We have learned that Lily has Preauricular pits, an anomaly resulting from imperfect external ear development. If these “pits” become swollen and infected they need to be surgically removed. Under the advice of the head and neck surgeon and Lily’s cardiologist, Lily will need to undergo an additional surgery later in September. Ugh…

On a positive note, Lily has been transitioning incredibly well into her new daily routine at her Montessori school. She is making new friends and trying new tasks. She took her first step when mommy came to pick her up one day. We’re sorry to say goodbye to summer so soon but we’re looking forward into settling into a routine that will continue to provide Lily with the freedom and consistency that will allow her to develop her sweet personality… and her sense of humor.

Seafair 2008

Lily experienced her first Seafair today. We had a wonderful time on our boat with our dear friends Scott and Kelly Bashinski and their son Justin. We were lucky with the positioning of the boat as the Blue Angels flew low right over our heads several times. We held Lily's ears as the jets blasted by. With that many boats on Lake Washington it was very choppy. But Lily wasn't phased by any of it. She loved the bouncing, rocking, and the wind on her face.



Lily napping on Scott's lap

Kelly and Justin





With Aunt Kelly





We named this the "hippie boat"
Note the recliners on deck.

Captain Justin

Captain John

Backyard Fun

Lily is discovering our back yard. Since she is still working on learning to walk, she can't run around yet. But she enjoys sitting and discovering grass, leaves, and such. We lowered the temperature of the hot tub and use it as a small swimming pool.

Lily's First Haircut

When Lily was in the orphanage, her hair was kept very short. We were so happy with her hair growth the last three months that we didn't realize that we had let her become a moppy headed little girl. So it was off to her first hair cut.





Before













During


















After

Lily Has Found Her Legs

Lily is working hard to learn to move herself around. A big part of that is learning to use her legs. While laying on her back in a crib for a year in a Chinese orphanage Lily didn't realize that her legs had a purpose.

John's sister Linda visited us for a few days and worked with Lily, encouraging her to use her legs. As you can see from these pictures, Lily is making great progress. And she is really motivated to move around.











"I'm movin' around in my cool new little engine"














Auntie Lin playing with Lily





Pamela's Aunt Polly and Uncle Dick visit us from Florida.

Lily's First Independence Day

We enjoyed our July 4th weekend at home this year. The weather was very cool, which is pretty normal for Seattle. As the saying goes, "summer in Seattle starts after the 4th".


Lily's energy level continues to increase and she has certainly found her voice. We are working with her to begin to figure out that her legs were made for walking. She's learning to stand while holding onto something, but is still very wobbly.




Lily continuously delights us with her zest for discovery and her glowing smile.







Learning to stand.

Hurdling Toward Toddlerhood

Lily's first boat ride (she loved it!)

In the 2.5 weeks since Lily left the hospital she has made incredible progress. Although she has had to endure numerous doctor checkups and medical tests, her time at home has been full of joy and growth. It's hard for us to imagine the quiet shy little infant who was put in our arms a mere 7 weeks ago.

Lily is hurdling toward toddlerhood at the speed of light. She's always in motion, catching up on all the play she missed while in the orphanage. She delights in imitating others, and in constantly showing off her new "tricks". She always seems to have her beautiful smile ready to flash at the slightest provocation.

Nana Barbara left for home this week, and Lily misses her. We miss her too. She was such an incredible help for us and Lily had so much fun spending time with her.

This week Lily begins some physical therapy to help her learn that she can walk. Pretty soon she'll be running us ragged!

Nana makes Lily a star

Feeding herself is one of Lily's new favorite things

Barbara and her friend Joan join us on the boat

Lily gets to know her brother Eric

Lily Is a US Citizen

Today Lily received a special package in the mail. It was her very official Certificate of Citizenship. Although she really became a citizen when we arrived at SeaTac from China, it was great to see it on an official document.

With the Certificate was a letter from President George Bush congratulating Lily on being a new citizen.

Lily Is Going Home Today!!

Great news! Lily is going home today. As you can imagine, we are so thrilled and relieved!

We will post an update later, but wanted to share our joy.

Lily Out of ICU

We are so pleased that Lily was able to move from ICU into a regular hospital room yesterday. It's a private room and, although we have to care for her almost full time now, it's better than the constant traffic coming and going in the ICU.

Lily is very uncomfortable and expresses that by spending a lot of her waking hours quietly crying in a very pathetic way. She is very agitated when a nurse or doctor enters her room. She gives them the "evil eye" which we translate into "What are you going to do to me now!"

Her discomfort is probably for a variety of reasons. She is certainly feeling the effects of her surgery, especially since she is no longer on morphine. Her tummy is trying to handle food again, and she's dealing with a lot of bubbles.

Thanks for checking in, and thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.

How Do We Say "Thank You"?

Thank you to everyone near and far who have continuously kept Lily in their thoughts and prayers. We continue to be amazed at the comments, emails, phone calls, gifts and loving acts of kindness from family, friends and those whom we’ve never met. When we started our adoption journey we knew it would forever change our lives as we embraced a little girl from the other side of the world. What we didn’t except is the wonderful people we’d meet along the way. The innocent life of one little girl has touched so many and as a result we have made new life-long friends.

The families from our adoption travel group have checked in often and included us in their prayer groups. Waiting families are sending us encouraging messages, our friends and neighbors are on stand-by for whatever we need, and then there’s Nana Barbara. She has made this ordeal so much easier by supporting us in so very many ways.

Yesterday we were treated to a homemade meal from another adoptive parent who lives in Lynnwood. Pamela met her through one of the adoption Yahoo groups and we were finally able to meet her in person. Coincidentally, her family recently adopted a little girl from the same orphanage where Lily waited. She too recently had open heart surgery from the same surgeon at Children’s Hospital, and her mommy’s name is also Pamela B! I’m sure Lily and Lulu will become fast friends as their Mommy’s watch in awe how their daughters heal and thrive. This is one of many examples of the loving acts of kindness others of which are chronicled throughout our journal.

Lily Is Tubeless!!

Today was a very special day for us. Lily has recovered to the point where all her tubes were removed. Two drainage tubes from her chest, her catheter, and (best of all) her breathing tube!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

First time Lily has sat up in 5 days

First nap after breathing on her own

Mom, Nana Barbara, and nurse Christina celebrate Lily's recovery