Yikes

For six days straight last week Hannah vomitted. With no medical history we were scared something serious may be wrong. After a few doctors visits and one hospital visit we found out she has reflux. When we got her in China she had a serious ear infection. After three different antibiotics she still has the ear infection, which contributes to the reflux because of the congestion and drainage.

The only thing that really upsets Hannah is not feeding her. No food, no peace. For six days we would feed her and she would vomit. She would immediately ask to be fed again, but we would stop feeding her until the next meal because we didn't know what was going on. On top of that, we really could not feed her a regular meal (clear liquids, etc.). This child eats like there is no tommorrow and we were putting her to bed hungry :( We did not feel like we had a choice.

She is better now and eating a regular diet. We will see an ENT sometime soon.

Despite the hunger Hannah was still an amazingly delightful child and her big Sister, MaCayla is showing she has a compassionate and loving heart towards her little Sister.

Oh, Hannah is drinking milk now. Yippee!

Joy! Joy!

The past three weeks have been the best I can ever remember. Deann is so happy spending all her time with MaCayla and Hannah. MaCayla is having a hard time concentrating on school, because she wants to be with Hannah so much. I am joyful to see my family so happy. Hannah is a delight. It's as if she lives to smile at everyone. If it all ended right now I would still be grateful to God for the past three weeks.

Sadly, I think I have been missing out on God's blessings from previous doubt and questioning God's plan in my life. Note to self-God is in control.

Potty Trained?

So many people have commented about my blog I would like to thank you all. Originally, this blog started out as a journal in a simple spiral notebook as a way to record my thoughts , feelings and emotions about our adoption of Hannah. After I transferred my journal to this blog I thought it would be a good way of keeping family and friends updated about our experiences in China as we traveled to bring Hannah home. I never expected the response I have received from so many people. Are you all just being nice? Anyway, I have no idea where this blog will go from here. I want to continue to write about my family, but I have a lot of opinions about other things too...Although they are usually trivial about my perspective on life.

I failed to write about one very funny thing that happened to Deann right after we received Hannah. The foster mother very clearly told us she goes to the toilet after breakfast. Little did we know she literally meant toilet. Evidently, at thirteen months old Hannah was potty trained. Deann was holding Hannah as she changed her clothes on the bed when Deann began making whistling noises at Hannah. Hannah abruptly stopped smiling and looked at Deann with her head half cocked as if to say "are you sure?". What happened next can only be described as "yuck". We had read where the Chinese potty train very young children by holding them over the toilet (squatty potty) and whistling to signal them to start "going". Deann can confirm that the Chinese do in fact practice this method of potty training. Needless to say, we have since abandoned whistling when Hannah is present :)