Travel Plans and The Flu!

Somehow those two just don't mix. I took Lily to the doctor this morning after she ran a fever for two days with a runny nose and cough. I am sure glad I did. She tested positive for the flu! I can't believe it. There have been no cases reported in our county yet, and my daughter had to be the first. So, she is on Tamiflu along with me (thanks Melissa!!)for preventitive measures. The only up side is that she will be better by the time we leave for China on Thursday.
We will finally meet Liam face to face on Monday, January 9! Here is our schedule while in China.
1/5 Leave US for Beijing
1/6 Arrive in Beijing
1/7 Free time
1/8 Depart Beijing for Zhengzhou
1/9 Gotcha Day!!!!
1/10 Adoption Registration
1/11 Free time
1/12 Free time
1/13 Receive Liam’s passport.
Leave Zhengzhou for Guangzhou
1/14 Liam’s physical
1/15 Free day
1/16 Free day
1/17- Free day
1/18- Free day
1/19 Today is your Consulate appointment.
1/20 Receive Liam’s visa & leave for Hong Kong
1/21 Leave Hong Kong for HOME!!!

Christmas!

We began our day opening presents at home. Lily didn't wake up until almost nine (thank goodness), but Morgan and Mason were up at seven. The rule the night before was no one was to wake up Lily in the morning and that we would wait until she got up before opening presents from Santa. That was pure torture for the other two! After all the presents were open, we took time to sing happy birthday to Jesus. After all, it is truly about Him and not Santa.

Once all the presents were opened, Lily really enjoyed riding her trike all around the house. I think this picture says it all..

And Morgan had to try out her new saddle for comfort...

Then we headed to my parents for Christmas with the family...

And of course our annual Christmas pictures (the men hate this part)

We had a wonderful Christmas. Now it's time to get serious about traveling in 10 days!




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It Has Been A BUSY Week!

It has been a busy, exciting week in the Waite household. The kids are out of school and that says busy in itself, but there is more. Morgan had a Christmas Party sleepover at our house with 8 girls from school on Tuesday night. They decorated cookies, played games, enjoyed the hot tub and hung out in the theater room and watched movies and played air hockey and foosball.

Of course Lily was right there in the middle of it all and enjoying every minute of it.

On Thursday, we received our.....

And on Friday we received our.....

We are so super excited. It was a crazy Friday with trying to clean our house and get it ready for Fred's company Christmas dinner/party that night and trying to wrap my head around traveling in two weeks and booking flights. But we did it. Flights were put on hold and the house got cleaned, food was prepared and everyone had a great time.

Lily and her cousin Violet walking to see Santa!

I will post more pictures later....blogger is giving me a hard time uploading!

Quilts are DONE!!!

Thank you to all of our friends and family who contributed to Liam and Miles' quilts. They turned out beautiful!
We got Liam's room set up this weekend. It took some moving around of some toys and putting some in storage for now, but we managed to pull it together. We are currently using the room we had as the playroom for his room until we sell our house. It turned out cute and will work well for now. I searched all over for a headboard for Liam, but couldn't find anything I was crazy about, so instead of buying something just to have it I decided to wait until we received our referral for Miles and buy them matching headboards, since they will share a room. (that was a crazy run on sentence)
Liam's quilt:

Miles' quilt:

I Seriously Can't Resist This Face....

This is the face I fell in love with so many months ago. At that time never knowing that he would be my son. But....God had other plans and I am so honored and humbled by His great love for us. I consider it a priviledge to be his mommy and I can't wait to bring him home. The home that he was destined to be a part of.
It makes my heart happy to see his smiling face and know that he is being well taken care of and loved. I couldn't ask for a better "temporary" home for him. That is what it is in reality..."temporary". If he were not adopted by us then he would have to leave there soon and move on to another place. Not sure where that would be, as when they get to be a certain age, they "age out" of this home.
I pray that the transition will be smooth when we meet Liam. I pray that God has already prepared his heart in advance. I pray that he feels safe with us and can feel how much love is in our hearts for him.
Please pray that we receive travel approval this week so we can travel before the Chinese New Year.

Christmas Cake & New Pictures of Liam

Morgan made a Christmas cake last night from Southern Living's top rated holiday cakes....Chocolate-Gingerbread-Toffee Cake! It was a little challanging for her, but it turned out a yummy sucess in my opinion. As I have stated in the past I DON'T like to bake, so I am glad she does. Although it is a little frustrating when she needs help, because it is the last thing I want to do. Fortunatley she only needed help with the ganache filing this time. That double boiler can be tricky for a 13 year old. She is a fabulous baker and I am so proud of her. Take a look...

I found some more pictures of our little Liam on another blog yesterday (thanks Melissa!!!). These are from 11/23/2011.

And these are from the beginning of December. Uggg, they cut his hair again! I don't mind a little cut, but they go all out and practically shave his head. I won't be touching that hair for a while...

As you can see in this picture, it looks like he is trying to eat something in the book. I think our Liam is going to be full of personality!

SANTA!!! - not so much

Lily was all excited to see Santa with her cousin Grace. She was all giddy when she saw him walk up and said "Hi, Santa!". However, once he sat in his infamous chair and was ready for her to come tell him what she wanted for Christmas her whole attitute changed. She wouldn't go near him! Grace had other plans though. She couldn't wait to sit on Santa's lap. She was Ms. Chatty Cathy. Oh, well...maybe next year. I did get a couple cute pictures though.

Morgan and Mason's last day of school was today. So, we are ready for TA and Christmas to get here. So glad that we don't have any plans and no where to go...for now! It will be nice to not have to hear that alarm clock go off at 6:00 am for 2 weeks!

Update of Lily

I am in awe at how well Lily is doing. Except for the fit that she gives me when I have to take her tubes in and out, she has been an angel. She is eating well and sleeping well. She doesn't mess with her tubes at all and she doesn't act as if they bother her in the least. That is a HUGE praise! Here are some pictures of her progression....

This one was taken on December 3 - 5 days post op (she still had her packing in)

This one was taken today when I had her tubes out cleaning them...

And this will be her new fashion accessory for the next 2-3 months:

On another note...
We are offically waiting on TA (travel approval) as of Wednesday. Praying it comes before Christmas!

The GOOD and the BAD

This decribes my day yesterday....Let's start with the GOOD.

GOOD: Lily got her tubes,packing and sutures out yesterday!
BAD: She sneezed right after and they came out and had to be put back in. This is not a pleasant experience..

GOOD: Lily took a 4 hour nap!
BAD: She sneezed during her nap and was a mess when she woke up and I had
to redo her tubes...take them out and back in. This happened one
more time that afternoon and they flew out into her snack
bowl...gross!

GOOD: Mason had his Christmas concert at school last night
BAD: Lily sneezed as I was getting ready to get her out of the car and go
into the school for the concert. I shut my door and went around to
the other side of the car to clean her up and put her tubes back in
and locked her and my keys in the car! Ok, you guys, this was the
straw that broke the camels back. I had an emotional break down
right there in the parking lot. Lily was locked in the car with my
keys. Needless to say she was very upset and there was nothing I
could do but stand at her window and try to console her. Oh and
yes, my phone was in the car too. So, I had Morgan run into the
school and get my dad, who called my husband who was on his way. My
husband called 911 when he got there and told them the situation.
After he called, he went in the school, so one of us could see Mason
perform and my dad stayed with me.
GOOD: As we were both looking in the window at poor Lily trying
to console her (and he was trying to console me) and asked her to
try to reach the button to unlock the door. Then we hear CLICK,
CLICK. We were both shocked. I looked down in Lily's lap and she
had my keys! I don't remember putting them in her lap. My
brillant child unlocked the door. Can you believe it?!?!? God is
so good. My dad stayed outside and greeted the police and I went
in and enjoyed my son's concert. We didn't miss anything.

I don't want to ever relive that day. I am glad it is behind us and today is a NEW DAY!

Surgery Update

Lily had her surgery early Monday morning. She did great going back into surgery and had no problem leaving us. She was feeling pretty good after the medication and was probably unaware that we weren't there. She had a double z plasty palatal lengthening; cleft lip revision; cleft lip rhinoplasty with septoplasty. The surgery took 4 hours and she was very combative coming out of the anesthesia. It was very hard! Fred and I went back to recovery first and then my sister, Grace (lily's cousin) and my mom came back. When she saw Grace she calmed down and eventually fell asleep. Grace rubbed her leg and talked sweetly to her. These girls have such a sweet and special bond. She did pretty good in the hopsital. We kept her on pain control with morphin every two hours. You could tell when the morphin would wear off!
Fred left to go get the kids off the school bus and my mom stayed with me and Lily. The kids came up to see Lily that afternoon. It was hard for Morgan to see her like that. They stayed for a brief visit and then Fred took them to dinner and then home and my mom stayed with me until my sister came up to spend the night with me. The evening went pretty well. I slept in the bed with Lily...the very small hospital bed (very uncomfortable!!!). I wanted to make sure that she didn't mess with any of her stitches or nose plugs while she was sleeping. She woke up during the night and finally went to the bathroom. Thank goodness!
Fred came back in the morning after he got the kids off to school. The doctor came in just as he arrived. Lily was very unhappy when he was there and wanted her IV out. She was telling everyone to leave and not to touch her. She was very bossy the entire time! So funny. We were able to leave the hopsital about 8:45 that morning after she ate some eggs and pancakes and drank some fluids. Lily's doctor wanted us to bring her by his office on our way home to do Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) on her before we went home. He is big believer in alternative medicine. So, why not right...nothing to loose. If she can be treated for pain without pain meds I am all for it. Our last experience with surgery a year ago was not good with pain control. Lily was in a lot of pain for several weeks following surgery, especially at night. Supposedly there is a frequency that he uses for pain and one for emotional trauma. It took about 20 minutes per treatment. She was not happy about being there, but during the last 5 minutes of the trauma treatment she fell asleep on me. He said that most of the time they only need one treatment.
We came home and she slept off an on. She was prescribed hydrocodone for pain and I gave that to her at 12:30 and then didn't have to give it to her again until bedtime around 8 (for precaution). Her temperment was very good. She went to bed with me about 8:30 and woke up at 2 and wanted to go to her bed. So, I gave her antibiotic (has to be given every 8 hours) and some more hydrocodone and she went right back to sleep until 6:45 this morning. She doesn't sleep soundly, a little restless, but I will take that. I am going to have to say the FSM was a success for her. Believe me when I say that I am very skeptical about this kind of stuff, but when you child is hurting you will do what ever it takes to help control their pain even if it is a little unconventional. We will see how the next few days go.
I am going to post a picture of her for those of you that may have to go through this one day. Not to scare you, but to prepare you. I know I would want to know all I could. She will have the tubes with packing in her nose until Tuesday and then they will take that out and replace it with tubes that I can take in and out for cleaning. She will be able to breath through those tubes! She has a lot of swelling right now and some bruising, so it is a little hard to tell how anything is going to look. She doesn't like when I have to clean everyhting, but we get through it. It's important, so we do it. Please keep her in your prayers that she has a speedy recovery and the swelling goes down soon. Overall, she has done very good with it all....PRAISE GOD!

Fill their Stockings!

Please click on the link "Fill their Stockings" on my sidebar and see all the wonderful items that are going to be available to support 3 amazing causes!
I can't wait to follow along and maybe win something!!!

He Sleeps

Our children are so precious when they sleep. I guess we have another thumb sucker!

I-800 Approval

We received our Provisional Approval today via email. Once we receive it in the mail, we will follow up with the NVC. Things are moving along! Praying that we make it to China in January!!!!!
We will have Lily's preo-op appointment on Tuesday, so I will discuss the probability of her traveling with us to China. Once I know, I will apply for our visas. I sure hope she can go with us. My attitude towards her traveling with us has changed significantly. I just can't imagine leaving her that long and she has become so much easier just in the last couple months. She is growing up so fast!!!

It's a Beautiful Day for a Horse Show!

Morgan has been riding for a little over a year now and today she had her first horse show. She has been a little hesitant on participating in horse shows becasue she gets a little anxious when she is in the ring with other horses. She was nervous last night and on the way there this morning, but she did GREAT! She competed in 6 competitions and placed 1st in one, 2nd in 4 and 4th in one. She also placed second in 2 all arounds. We are so proud of her. She has come a long way in a year. She has had her struggles along the way, but she has finally found something that she absolutely loves to do. It was a great day!