Little Peas

More 4th!

2011-07-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

Belated, yes, but here are a few more photos of the girls from the 4th.

Our neighbors and friends hosted a fabulous 4th block party.

There was a bike parade...

There were flags....

Popsicles....

and fireworks...

Does it get any better than that?

Happy 4th!

2011-07-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a change in one year! Same dresses as last year :0

My little princesses:)

We are off to a bike parade today - kids get to decorate their bikes and then parade around the block. Hoping to get some good photos.

Speaking of photos, I'll post a random bunch below.

From our reunion, this is Sarah, who called us for both our girls' referral calls.

And Josh, the co-owner and founder of CCAI.

It was great to see both of them.

Here are the girls outside CCAI gates.

And the families from 615 who were able to make it that day.

And a few photos from June 28th- Double Celebration- Family Day!

Unfortunately, the night ended with a black eye and face for Catherine after she hit the metal bar on a teeter totter, but nothing broken :(

I can't believe it has already been one year since we first held Teagan!

Colorado Day 3 Natalie arrives!

2011-06-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been SO MUCH FUN!

We started Wednesday by meeting Emily and her 5 children at CCAI for culture camp. Natalie is doing culture camp with Catherin for 3 days. Emma is doing 5 days.

We got the girls settled at the camp, and talked to Xia, the charity director at CCAI. I am a HUGE fan of Xia's and all she does for children. I hope to travel with her to China on one of her trips.

After that, it was off to the park with the other 4 children and Teagan. Let me say, Teagan has mad love for Emily's younger daughter Amy.

Teagan could not get enough of Amy. She is a SUPER big sister.

Seeing Noah again and meeting Emily and Jim's other children was a great way to kick off day. here is Noah above. Precious!

After camp, we met Emma and family at the pool.

What more can I say about these girls? Happy happy happy.

After that, it was time for "happy hour" which for the girls meant, Shirley Temples, nachos, card games and nintendo.

Seriously, what else can you say? It has been such an honor to spend time with Emma and Natalie. Catherine and Teagan are glowing.

Time for dinner - more Shirley Temples (Yep, Natalie's Mom must be Thrilled with my parenting::)

Then, time for movie night. This was Cat's first sleep over by the way. BIG BIG DEAL!

Colorado Day 2

2011-06-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

We went to Ft. Collins today and stopped at Evergreen along the way to do some hiking. Both girls had a great time, can't wait to head out again.

We visited Lair of the Bear (Or Lair O' Bear). Anything Catherine did, Teagan did. If Catherine got a rock, (She loves rocks!), Teagan got a rock. If Catherine ran, Teagan ran.

We had lunch in Evergreen and then off to Ft. Collins to meet with friends and colleagues. Jason claims it is impossible that I actually had a research meeting in a wine bar with my colleague, but really, we worked! After that, we saw my advisor and his family. We had a great time with Dan and Margot and their kids. Catherine and Ethan performed a magic show for us all.

This is Jason being tricked into doing a magic trick! The broom is holding up a cup of water.:)

Colorado Day 1 - Emma and Catherine

2011-06-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

Then - June 2004.

And now - June 2011!

Today was an amazing day - Catherine and Emma spent the first 11 months of their lives sharing a crib in Dianjiang. We spent two weeks together in China in June and July2004 with our families. Today, the girls were reunited!

We also had the pleasure of spending time with Emma's mom and dad Chris and Tim. Pretty much a perfect day.

This picture is sadly blurry, but perfect nonetheless.

Colorado reunion !

2011-06-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, yes it's been 3 months since I posted! We are back! I've had some problems with my google and work email accounts overlapping...

Here is Catherine on her last day of First Grade! Wow!

We are heading to Denver for a little bit of work with colleagues and a lot of fun with a reunion of families who have adopted from CCAI!

We can't wait to reunite Catherine with her cribmate of 11 months, Emma! And I can't wait to see Emma's mom again and meet her DH and other children!!!

We also can't wait to see some other CCAI families from group 615 that we hope are coming to the reunion.

We also get to reunite with some friends from our trip to get Teagan! Emily and her family! Here we are in China a year ago:0

And Natalie is attending Chinese Culture camp with Catherine and staying with us. WOOT WOOT!

How great is that?

Melissa's family will be there too! I think we get the whole family now!

I wanted to update those of you had followed this blog in the past about something else - JiaYi, Teagan's friend. She is home now with her family since March, and has had her first surgery and is doing really well. I hope one day we can get the girls together again.

That's all for now

Oh and congratulations to Dawn's family on their precious little girl!

Halfway There Birthday Party!

2011-02-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Catherine's 7th birthday came 6 days after we arrived home with Teagan, so we celebrated a halfway there party last night instead.

She wanted a roller skating party...at the Roller Garden....think disco ball lights, games, loud dance music and occasional fake smoke......

Jason and I are still recovering.

Notice the looks of dismay on Jason and Teagan's faces:

The kids seemed to have a great time though:

A big hit were the fake teeth, some of which glowed and flashed.

Another source of joy (and bickering) were the tickets one could use to buy prizes such more fake teeth:

More looks of horror from the birthday girl's father below:

By 700 pm, things were winding down and it was time for cake and ice-cream (this way we could maintain the high level of energy among the kids).

She asked for a cherry cake with a girl walking a golden retriever, in the sun, with a flower and bee..!

Mommy did a bad job and did not light the candles the first time through (there was a lot going on). So, Jason went and got the power lighter and we sang Happy Birthday a second time. Despite the delay in game, the children rolled with it and added "Cha cha cha" at the end of each line of the song. And then a concluding High-YA! Piece of Cake! Bellyache! Blah! They all seemed to know this. I don't know how or where they learned this version of Happy Birthday.

To the five other adults who stayed and helped us - thank you:)!

Winter Carnival

2011-02-11T13:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, you got it! Winter Carnival. Teagan and her good friend Kathleen hit the St. Paul Winter Carnival Last week:)

Did I mention it was cold here?

The pictures are small for some reason - but you get the picture!

Happy Year of The Rabbit!!!!

2011-02-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

A year ago, we saw this photo for the first time. Our first photo of Teagan.

It was a Friday, I was at work when Sarah from CCAI called me and left a message asking me to call her. WHAT?! Why was she calling? She had told me, a week earlier, that we had another 2 years to wait (despite waiting 4 years already)..... this is a long post..stay with me:)

I called Jason and we both feared that the program was maybe ending or something was wrong with our paperwork or......... I was in tears. I called Sarah back. She was in a meeting.

All day.

I could not concentrate. I cleaned my office and even got out the vacuum. A colleague jokingly asked if I was pregnant! Little did we know, a "paper pregnancy" was about to start! (she's the tiny one on the far left of photo in pink).

At 5 pm., Sarah called back and started our conversation with "Well, some things have changed since we last talked. Can I get Jason on the line?"

What?!

I had no way to tell him Sarah was calling about a referral before she reached him.

Where was Jason when he got the news? In a grocery store parking lot. With Catherine in the back seat. Through the entire call, Catherine sat in the back demanding to know the details.

In some state of shock, I demanded Sarah review the pronunciation of Teagan's name (Qian Jia Yue) no less than five times to make sure I could say it properly with the correct tones, before we learned anything else about her. Jason reports banging his head against the dashboard while waiting for Sarah to move on and tell us something about this little girl, while I babbled on about the 4 tones in Chinese.

She was 9 months old. Her birthday was in March, like mine! Sarah (who also called us with Catherine's referral), sent us her photos and asked us to think about her file, do our research on cleft palate and her alleged hearing loss, and our ability to provide treatment, and call her back the following week.

My first research was to find an Irish girl's name that meant beautiful - as Jia means beautiful. Teagan in fact means "beautiful."

When I came home, Catherine was walking around the house with Tegan's photo chanting "Jia Yue! Jia Yue!"

We had to wait a full month to make a public announcement about our decision. The special needs program process is different than the non special needs process. You cannot make a public announcement until the CC*A*A has approved you. In the NSN process, you do not get a referral before you are approved by the C*CA*A. In the special needs process, you are matched and then you ask the C**A for approval (I am putting in * to avoid it being picked up on Google).

Around that time, I learned Teagan (Little Peas) was being cared for by an amazing group of women and men at Angel's Home.

Of course, we told our parents. And, well of course, I had to share the news with some close friends and colleagues. And in fact, Jason shared the news and her photo with the "Drew Crew" before I even had a chance too!

We had the official approval by March 8th.

You might remember that I posted about the girl who is next to Teagan in this photo below? JiaYi? Teagan and JiaYi came into Pingdingshan close together and our born 3 weeks apart. They then went to AH together. I've been hoping JiaYi would be matched with her family since September when I realized she had not been adopted.

Good news!!!! She has found her family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOHOOO!!!!! I know a lot of you are cheering along with me. I am in contact with her mother now and am looking forward to following their journey. I hope we can get the girls together one day and reunite them. They are an hour and half flight away.

It's been awhile since I've done any blogging.

We went to Mexico in January, and promptly lost our camera on day 2 of the trip! We have a few photos from the disposable camera though. LOL! It's the best I can do.....

The trip was great - but too short! We all need more rest!

The girls loved the pools - there were a lot of them!

Teagan especially was fascinated by the sand. She met a little boy, Alex, and they played together in the sand and water.

Yes, she is happy here! Really!

Teagan seemed particularly happy with the fruity drinks that were brought to us on the beach.

Catherine and I took a great snorkeling trip - wish I had photos of that!

What are those clouds doing in the photos?! Well, it did rain 3 days of our trip!

Happy Lunar New Year to you all. The Year of the Rabbit is supposed to be a more peaceful year than that of the Tiger.....

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

Sledding on Christmas Day above.....

Conducting Wizard experiments.....

A trip to the science museum....

Snow castle in progress....

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone! We are celebrating our Christmas Miracle this year! Last year at this time, we had NO IDEA that we would have our second child by this Christmas. In fact, we thought we had at least two more years to wait (after waiting 4 years already).

We started out the day making Christmas Cookies! :) We all got on our aprons and made butter cookie dough.

This is one of the Angel Cookie's Catherine made:

Teagan is pointing to the advent calendar here. She wants to open more slots. Her Aunt Deidre made the girls 12 days of Christmas Calendars too, and she has wanted to open all this every day.

We told the girls they could open one gift before church......

Catherine was VERY excited to get Julie, from American Girl from her Grandparents.

Teagan enjoys opening gifts, more than the gifts I think! She got a new gift to try to open after opening her first one.

Teagan also opened a doll.

Before church, Catherine suggested a "photo shoot" for our Chinese New Year card.

Love this one!


We are pointing at the advent calendar here which Teagan was very fascinated by.

70s style photo here.

The children's service was beautiful standing room (barely!) only. Next year, we'd need to arrive about an hour early. Jason and Teagan spent most of the service in a kitchen, Catherine and I could see through this doorway.

Next stop - Rainbow where we met the Rooney Family for Dinner. Dan and Susan go there every Christmas Eve as part of their tradition and invited us to join them this year.

Ok, yeah, those were not the best photos of the moment, but it was a great evening and fun to catch up with Dan's family.

We do "family gifts" (grandparents etc.) on Christmas Eve and "Santa Gifts" on Christmas. I didn't get photos of everything, but here is a random sample of the one's I did capture:

Rock Star Game from Grandma Shaw - Rock on!

The Garage and First Purse from Grandma Jackie and Grady and Grandpa Chuck

After that, it was time for bed! Teagan had be physically separated from her garage. I let her sleep with the cars. I don't think she understood it would be there in the morning still based on the full body wrap she did around it.

Christmas Day to come!

Photos and stuff

2010-11-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

Catherine wanted to give Teagan her bottle the other day.

Here are the girls on Thanksgiving Day.

They are in matching boots in the above two photos - Catherine is wearing mine, and DouDou is wearing Cat's.

Some more fort building...

Some updates: Teagan started speech therapy last week. She is working with a great speech therapist at the U. The technique is to bombard the child with sounds like B and P. Like really bombard. Like "B B B B B BARN! CAN YOU SAY BARN?! " Strangely (to me), it seemed to work. Although, one of her first new words was "MO" as in "NO."

We go back to the ENT tomorrow. It appears as if her ear infection is back in that right ear and she ha the cough again. :( The antibiotics did work - for about a week. But, slowly that night cough is coming back and she is not sleeping. No one is! I am not sure what the options are here - I guess we will find out tomorrow.

This backpack is a source of fascination for Teagan. In fact, all bags are. She regularly moves all her sippy cups out of their cupboard and into whatever bag she can find - including the trash!

SNOW!

2010-11-14T14:45:00.000-08:00

First snowfall came on Saturday! About 8 inches where we live. Catherine was thrilled. Teagan seemed stunned. I am not sure how much contact she had with snow in Beijing. It snows there, but I am not sure they would have taken the kids outside. Shew would have been in the midst of her lip repair and she was only 8 months old last year at this time.

Yep- didn't have time to get the furniture off the deck, and we had just grilled...It was 68 2 days earlier!

Teagan is back on antibiotics - oral and ear. In her follow up ear appointment, her right ear is infected again. We also asked about her night cough. The hypothesis is that her adenoids are infected because she had a terrible night cough in China, that only stopped for 3 weeks after her surgery. It then returned. IT may be that the antibiotics she took around her surgery time cured the infection but it came back. The cough is getting better. We'll follow up in a couple of weeks.

A big box arrived, and the girls had a great time together!

If you look closely, you can see the "private keep out" written on the box.

Teagan is really saying "MORE" clearly these days and she said "Mama, hi" today clearly. Baby steps!

Last thing, so many of you have asked about Teagan's friend from AH. She is still hanging in there. The surgeon's believe she CAN survive a surgery, but a U.S. facility is needed and expertise. Thanks to all of you, and there are a lot of you, who have written me privately about JiaYi. Your family is out there JiaYi!

Hearing, Home visit, and Halloween

2010-11-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

We visited Cleveland over MEA week-end. It was a great October week-end there, and Teagan met her great-grandmothers, aunts and uncles, and family friends.

My aunt Deidre and her husband Michael even came up from North Carolina to meet Teagan. We also reconnected with a family friends, including Dara and her daughter, Fiona, who is the same age as Teagan (6 weeks younger). Fiona was the name we had chosen for Teagan, but when we saw her middle name would be "Jia" we did not think "Fiona Jia" worked. :) I'll intersperse photos of the visit with updates on hearing and speech.

In terms of hearing, we have some good news! After her post-op appointment, Teagan has totally normal hearing in her left ear. We had been told her hearing loss was mild-moderate in that ear when we received her referral in February. Wohoo! Ear tubes made all the difference.

Catherine, Fiona, and Teagan climbing trees and sitting on pumpkins:

Her right ear was too filled with fluid to tell what her hearing is in that ear. It was untestable. This was the ear with moderate-severe hearing loss according to her files from China. We've treated the ear with drops and will return on Wednesday to see if that has helped and if not, what the next step is.

This green glowing ball was a huge hit:

We started speech therapy last Tuesday. It was an "interesting" experience as I and Jason both had the stomach flu. Because I could sit up and he could not, I took her. Teagan refused to utter one sound in front of the speech therapist. When she left the room, Teagan would start vocalizing.

Catherine and Ryan holding drawing of Ryan as a M.D. (he's in med school).

The therapist recommended weekly visits for speech at this point and then we can ease into twice a month. We are working on "B" "P" and "H" sounds for now and reinforcing what she can do already- mainly "M" sounds like "more" and "mama."

Teagan loves "Twinkle Twinkle" and we sing it about 30 times each day, mostly right when she wakes up and when putting her to bed. She has a sign language book with pictures of kids signing the song. She tries to sign and sign it and will sign "Twinkle Twinkle" book over and over, and "again" when she wants to hear it again.

I told her the other night, after I had been singing it for over 20 minutes, she had to sleep first and we could sing it in the morning again. She closed her eyes shut really tightly, for about a minute. Then popped them open and signed "again!" LOL! I laughed out loud and she started laughing too.

Now for Halloween:

Catherine was Hermione and Teagan a lion for Halloween.

Catherine fully enjoyed Halloween complete with the "Halloween Trolley" experience in the afternoon. And trick or treating with neighborhood friends later.

Teagan was a little less enthusiastic about the experience, but I think still had a good time.

Kathleen and Teagan

You can see her rolling in our yard here:

Riding in Finn's car.

And walking to Charlie:

Closed!

2010-10-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

The fistula is closed!! YES! I am hoping it is not my imagination...Jason was gone for five days and perhaps I was delirious, but I think it's gone! This is great news! Stay tuned.

Next week we will go to have Teagan's hearing checked, post-surgery, first time......Then they will check the ear tubes. Are they still in? Clear? And so on? She's been pulling at one ear for the past few days, so I am curious to see how she is doing. She's been signing less since ear surgery, I am not sure why. But, she clearly understand everything we are saying. You can ask Teagan where her nose is, where her belly is, where are her shoes, where is Nana Rosalie (her BlahBla Pig)? And she will respond to you.

We've had a busy two weeks. Before Jason went to Finland, Jason's brother's family was here for a GREAT week-end to meet Teagan. We appreciate the journey they made with 6 children on hand!!!!

Teagan and Kathleen have been all over Linden Hills with Melissa.

At the library:

At the Bread Store:

We've got a couple days to hang out here before we go to Cleveland - my grandmothers can meet teagan for the first time.

If I can end on a more serious note, I've noticed that Teagan's friend from Ang**el Home - JiaY* has not found her family yet:(. Here are JiaYi and Teagan together at AH before Teagan (the JiaYue) left AH.

Teagan and JiaYi came from Pin*ding*shan together to Ange*l's H*ome in July 2009

They were friends and companions at Angel*s H**ome (the * are for searchers, not something else!). Jia*Yi has a serious heart condition and has not been adopted yet. They are one to two weeks apart in ag.

I am really hoping and advocating for Jia*Yi!!! I know there are people from the larger adoption community who follow this blog. She is walking, talking and looks healthy but her heart condition is quite serious and needs medical attention.

I know the right family is out there for her.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

2010-09-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Moon Festival Everyone!

We did not have our party this year. But, we did take a trip to look at the full moon and think of everyone we love all over the world looking at the same moon. As a bonus, Jupiter was out that night, in line with the moon and we could see it and Jupiter's four moons through the binoculars. Teagan ran through the field laughing and probably wondering why she was out in a field at 830 pm.

The fistula is still there, but it does not seem worse. We will probably be starting speech therapy in about 6 weeks. Meanwhile, Teagan seems healthy and happy.

One of the favorites has been going to watch "cat cat" play soccer this fall. We've had great weather and she loves to run around. Here is some "peek a boo" while watching the game.

A little of the game:

A good view of the game from Dad's Shoulders:

More playing:

And more peek-a-boo:

Updates

2010-09-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

I've been getting some requests for updates on how Teagan is doing after surgery. It's hard to believe it's been two weeks already from this photo above.

For some comic relief, here I am in my "bunny suit" before I took her in. You know, I am not sure how comforting it was for me to carry her down to surgery and talk to her as she fell asleep looking like this.

For the most part, she is doing really well. The liquid diet was tough, she was sick of jello, soup, and blended food after about 3 days. I don't know if you can tell here, but she is not pleased with her food choices as she sits in her chair.

We tried to make some good ones - graham crackers with cream were a hit, so was peaches with juice, and meatballs blended with broth. She even like blended wedding soup made by our neighbor Scott. Popsicles were allowed. This is Teagan with her Popsicle making the "cold" face.

She has moved to soft foods now and no arm restraints after 11 days. She was so happy to do this that she literally danced a jig when she has her first bite of soft food. And smiled every time she ate something. No crackers, cookies, chips, or sharp edged food for awhile.

There is a set back- a fistula has developed. I saw it Saturday - a fistula is a hole basically. It's a smallish hole in the back of her mouth where the soft and hard palate meet. It's a place where there are not as many layers of tissue to work with and bring together and is the weakest kind. Teagan's palate was bilateral and that is the kind of palate (wide) that is most vulnerable to fistulas.

We spoke with our surgeon Monday about it. While it is not uncommon, you don't want a fistula. We will have to wait and see what happens. It may granulate and therefore close on it's own. IT may not close but stay the same size. If that happens, we can wait to repair it when we do a lip revision, nose revision, bone graft and all the other things to come. If it grows, we have to deal with it sooner.

If your reading this, please pray/hope/wish/visualize with me it closes on its own.

I spoke with the cleft clinic about this yesterday. My read of the literature was that even a small fistula can impede speech although our surgeon thought not (but he is not a speech specialist). The expert in speech at the cleft clinic, said it's too early to tell. But, yes, a small fistula can hurt speech. It also may not. There are endless possibilities and we just won't know until she starts speaking more.

I think this is the part we just have to get used to. There is going to be a lot of forwards and some backwards.

Bonus Photo: Here is a photo from Angel's Home of Grace and Teagan!

Almost out of here..

2010-09-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

After a very rough start in recovery and a tough night, and being told we were NOT going home....Teagan has turned the corner and is racing towards discharge! OK the racing part is my dream..but they might let us go today because Teagan has started to drink broth and water. I would love to get her out of here and away from the tubes and beeps and the madness that goes with overnight hospital stays. Toddlers and cords don't mix well at night. She does not need oxygen anymore, is off the BP cuff, the bleeding from her mouth is mostly gone, and she has almost smiled once - at my dancing to enrique. We took her on a hall walk and she made some signs for cat and fish when she saw photos of them. We can take off one restraint as long as we watch her hand. Her hearing seems improved already...much quicker reaction time to sounds.

done!

2010-09-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Palate repair -done! Ear tubes done. Met with surgeon after that and learned she had
A lot of fluid in one ear and some in other. Hearing should really improve now.
Palate repair went well too. We may stay 1 day now not two.

The hospital is GREAT! Really impressive.
The process is designed with child well being in mind. I was able to carry her to OR...hold her in my lap with her mask and say goodbye when she was out. No poking no needles before then. She had access to fun toys before then and ran around.

We will see her in about 20 mins.

Thanks for all the prayers, well wishes, and waiting room reading material you all sent us:)

First Day of First Grade and Pre-Op

2010-08-31T17:41:00.000-07:00

Last year..Kindergarten First Day

This year..a First Grader!

Before school Drew Crew Gathering:

Group Hugs:

Walking in:

In the classroom:

After School!

These two were seated next to each other in class. They were separated by noon.

Yes, they would not leave the school. They are sitting here eating someone's lunch together as a snack.

And Going Home:

We met with Teagan's surgeon yesterday. He explained what he will do exactly and we talked some details. Good news- she is allowed to keep using her bottle after surgery! She's up to 3 a day now and I don't think it would go over well to give them up now. This is a big relief. He thinks he will be done in about 2.5 hours including the ear tubes and exam. I'll be allowed to put on scrubs and be with her until she is asleep and then they will take her to the operating room. There is about an 85% success rate with this surgery for her kind of CP. Otherwise, you have to redo it or go on to other procedures. Since we are going to be in the 85%, I won't concern myself with what that would entail. My Dad is coming up for a few days to help us out, making sure Catherine can get to school and other things. Teagan will wear arm restraints at night, but he said we could keep them off in the day as long as we can keep our eyes on her all the time. All in all, he presented a much more balanced view than I had heard before.

I'll post an update after the surgery. Wish Teagan luck.

Updates and Visits

2010-08-22T05:09:00.000-07:00

It looks like Teagan will have palate repair surgery on September 9th. We are waiting to hear on ear tubes which are supposed to be scheduled at the same time. So, it's not 100% certain yet. Although we thought it would be early Fall, 9/9 is earlier than we thought. I am grateful they could get Teagan in so fast given how much she is working to communicate with us. At the same time I am sad as it means she cannot have a bottle for 6 weeks. She's been taking at least 3 a day and I am am not looking forward to giving this peaceful time up for her so soon. She loves to be rocked and have a bottle before bedtime, naptime, and when she 1st wakes up. No sippy cups either.

It's a two night stay in the hospital and then a long recovery. As in, people have said things like "Well, at Week 3 things start to look up." Some people have said after one week things are much better though. She will be on a liquid diet and then mushy foods for about 6 weeks. We have a pre-op talk coming next week and we will know more then.

Two months after surgery, we will evaluate her speech. And then start speech therapy if needed. It usually is, so I am counting on it.

Step by step!

A great visit with my parents - they met Teagan for the first time! Catherine was especially thrilled to have special Grandparent time. They spent Friday together at the movie, lunch, and ice cream. On Sunday, we went to the Peace Garden together - it's a beautiful park and a special place for us. After Jason's dad died, we all contributed to a peace bridge the next Father's Day in honor of his dad and those who experience violence in their lives. My mom and Catherine made a peace crane together.

Some other photos from the Peace Garden:

A trip to Lake Calhoun:

Farm Camp and Updates

2010-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here are Catherine and her very good friend Dahlia on their way to farm camp last week! I think they had a great week there taking care of animals, cooking, doing crafts and being out in the country. Dahlia's mom will be giving me some more photos to upload this week.

Catherine informed me that she and Dahlia knew how to catch chickens now! LOL! She told me the technique for grabbing the chicken and making sure you have it's wings stabilized. I think I have seen this demonstration on her stuffed duck so many times that I could also catch a chicken.

In my last post, I think I mentioned they were caring for their own sheep this week. Catherine wonders if she can visit him.

We've had more doctor appointments (kind of the equivalent of paperwork in China in terms of frequency:) and we are making plans towards palate repair. Let me throw a promotion in here for the International Adoption Clinic at the U. I am so happy we have the International Adoption Clinic here at the U. Our MD there, Cindy Howard and the entire team are amazing people. Dr. Howard called me twice personally to give me test results in detail and help us navigate and coordinate various medical issues.

It looks like palate surgery will be in September and we have tacked on the ear tubes then instead of August 19th. We are waiting for final confirmation, so I hope it works out to be in September and not later. They would like to do a full ear exam on her and they can't do it when she is awake. If it is later, the cleft team would recommend we not delay ear tubes. Let me also promote the cleft team at MOOS.. they have been supportive since the time of our referral, providing us with information and answering questions via email along the way. Even looking at photos!

I think Teagan is really worn out from the number of visits we have head each week, sometimes 2-3, and I would like to minimize an extra procedure if we can. She has started having night terrors, and I hate to see that for her. We were probably up with her 5 times last night alone patting her back to sleep. I think her cleft lip surgery had a deep and negative effect on her given her total mood change at each Dr. appointment.

This is one of Teagan's new favorite objects ! It's very soft and feels like it is handknit (thank you Kristin!). One of her other favorites are the magnets on the refrigerator that you can see in the background (and they are on the floor too of course). You put the letters in the holder and you get a song " A, A!, A says A! Every letter makes a sound, A says A!" She can also press a button and get the alphabet. Although I can now hear this song in my head, every waking moment (not good), and the magnets are a mess, she loves them, and we love that she loves music and letter sounds. Ok, yes, the fact that we can cook in the kitchen with greater ease while she plays with them is also a major bonus!

Today she made a "compound sign" she did "again + please." Awesome! I've been working on please and was not sure she got it. What was she wanting again?

This bear in a the yellow raincoat! The bear sings "I am singing in the rain" when you press his arm. It was gift for Catherine from my Grandmother Duffy, but Teagan has taken it over it seems and loves to play the song again and again!

More doctors and more photos.

2010-08-06T04:33:00.000-07:00

Another busy week here! Catherine has been at farm camp all week with her friend Dahlia. Today is the parent tour and I am sending the camera with Jason to capture the action. I'll post those next time. Catherine has taken care of her own sheep named Chocolate, milked cows, made food, collected eggs and held a chicken this week! It's a great camp - but a long day for 5 days. I'll be happy when it's over so I can see her again!

We had our international adoption clinic appointment this week - about 4 hours. We loved meeting Dr. Howard and the whole team. Basic report - Teagan is doing really well!

We got some good suggestions and advice from the team such as keeping life as"boring" as possible at home ("boring is best for baby" -same routine), making sure Jason and I do the primary caretaking for the next 4-6 months and minimizing others holding Teagan and so on. We'll have to to think creatively on how to balance work and child care on this one. She did have to endure a very sad and long blood draw. The team really tried, but had a hard time getting the vials they needed. I hope they did get enough as I don't want to put her through that again. We'll have to return in 6 months to check her titers (another blood draw) for the vaccinations she received in China to see if they need to be redone. Yes, a Hague commentary on my end.

Here she is exploring the slide at the park.

And down!

We have our palate repair consult next week, and should have a better idea of when that can be done. The IA clinic recommended exploring the option of not doing ear tubes until we do the palate surgery to minimize the stress for her. The cleft clinic said this was an option, but they prefer to move more quickly on ear tubes if a child has fluid or may be in discomfort. After the appointment Wed, I am hoping we can wait and do them together. We have weekly appointments as it is through August and each one is stressful.

I know I keep talking about her signs, but they are really amazing! She has now learned sand, fish and bird and horse. Last night she repeatedly made all 3 signs at me when I put her to bed and asked me to show her the photos in the book (of fish, birds, and horses) called "It's time for bed." This was instead of drinking her bottle or going to sleep of course!

In the photo above, she is asking me to sit down on the teeter totter seat next to her (they are in a circle). We bounced up and down for awhile making horse noises and she really laughed.

As I write this, Jason is running with one of our travel group friends, Jim who is in MPLS this week (Natalie's Dad). Wish the whole family was here! We hope to see them next June when we go to Colorado for the reunion with Group 615 (Our travel group for Catherine).

This was our first trip to the rose garden here. I hope we can come back here next week when my parents visit and meet Teagan for the first time.

I need the to get the camera out!

2010-08-04T03:52:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded what was on our camera. Looks like I need to get the camera read more often! We've been home three weeks now and Teagan is seeming more comfortable each day with new people and new places. She is still in love with Aslan. He is a little less enamored with her as time goes by. This photo, while terrible, captures the typical stalking of him that goes on each day. Still, each day he comes to sit by me when I give her her bottle in the morning.

We've been busy with doctor appointments and balancing our work schedules. Our cleft clinic appointment was last week for 5 hours. Teagan will have ear tubes put in August and have a full ear exam. We will get a better idea on hearing levels after that. She clearly hears though and has learned a number of new signs. A favorite now is "again." We've been trying to get out as much as we can with her to the parks as well. She loves the baby swings.

She also likes to point at airplanes as they go by. It's interesting because we have a photo of Grace from Angel's Home pointing at an airplane on outing they were on and trying to get Teagan to look at it.

Catherine pushing Teagan:

Catherine climbing the swing-set:

Enjoying the park slide together!

That's all for now. Today another clinic appt. We are supposed to "liner her diaper with plastic wrap" and get a "stool sample in a baggie" before the appt at 8:45. Right!

Rocking Horses

2010-07-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Can you really take 50 photos of children, a cat, and a rocking horse? Apparently yes. After being home 2 weeks, Teagan finally approached her rocking horse. Catherine was on hand to help.

In walked Alsan. That is what Teagan is looking at.

I spoke too soon about sleep after my last post. I won't say anything about it here.

Teagan explored our backyard a little bit today. She has teeth coming in and she loves teething rings from the freezer.

Some other things she is enjoying include:

Making the "eat" sign:

Her sippy cup - we have fallen in love with Nubby Sippy Cups - the best for a child with an unrepaired palate:

And eating from her snack container:

Exploring the rocks in the backyard (don't ask, apparently the former owners believed our backyard to be filled with "frogs and a bog):

That's all for today. This week is the five hour cleft clinic - can't wait to hear what they have to say!

Sleep Progress!

2010-07-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Sleep! 11 -12 hours of beautiful sleep. After not allowing Teagan to nap for one day, she slept from 7-7. Yes, she fell asleep at dinner with her head on the tray before that happened, but it worked!

Since then, even with a nap, she has been able to sleep from 730 pm- 730 am or 8 pm to 8 am. Catherine would sleep until 9 am every day, so this is good work time for us without someone else watching Teagan. 3 hours before she gets up and 2 hours or so during nap. I probably should not count my chickens though, as we are only on day 3:) (and I probably should not use my work time to BLOG!).

While Catherine is at camp (forts and drama this week) - we've been trying to get Teagan out in the sun each day to help her reset her clock and just have some fresh air. We are lucky to have parks all over. IN fact, Jason just read that the original city ordinance was for no house in minneapolis to be more than 6 blocks from a park.

At Linden Hills Park, her favorite spot is the grass.

She really likes the park by Lake Harriet on the hill and today we tried the Lake Calhoun park while Jason ran the lakes.

She really likes going up and down steps.

And up through this walk way.

And sitting in this little house.

She was interested to see other kids, but wanted to be held anytime any of them looked at her.

Baby swings are also a big favorite.

The happiest we've seen her is in our living room, when all four of us are there. She loves to run around and play peekabo and some other game that involves her running and screaming. She also loves Popsicles.

We finally developed the film from the cameras we sent with her care packages. I sent her 4 packages and now I wish I had sent cameras with each one. I sent a camera in 2 of them. They show a good look at her daily life at Angel's Home. We were able to see her crib and how she ate and her caretakers and her playing with other children, dancing, crawling, and so on. There were a lot with Yao Yao (Grace) in them which was nice. I didn't see her other friend, Suhn in any photos.

Catherine is 7!

2010-07-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Catherine turned 7 yesterday! On her birthday, she gets to choose her day. Here's what we did.

She chose to start with a vanilla steamer and opening gifts. We started with a happy birthday song, Teagan joined in on the piano.

Teagan helped with the recycling.

Pink flip flops from Cleveland!
A surprise inside the handbag.

Another round of Happy Birthday- Teagan on her piano now and Catherine on the wrapping paper roll.

Next stop, skating! We practiced skating at the school parking lot. Or Catherine did. This looks like a lot of fun and I am thinking I'd like some skates now! Skating around the lake sounds like a good thing for us to do together.

Teagan watched from the school steps....

Catherine saw her neighbor and friend Sylvia at the school park and skating ended for some play in the park. Fun fact - Sylvia's little brother has the same birthday as Catherine! Sylvia was sporting a very cool ankle and wrist bracelet.

Post park for Cat and post nap for Teagan (we tried to keep it short today, under 2 hours, she is still not sleeping at night ), Catherine chose Dairy Queen for her "birthday cake." Dipped cones are the big favorite.

Teagan and I split a sundae. Have I mentioned she enjoys her food? She literally bounces up and down and kicks when she eats. A bit like me:)

Then, a trip around the lake, and a Lake Monster Sighting.

Unfortunately, Teagan missed the sighting because she was asleep. We don't want more day sleeping! We turned on the radio and started singing to wake her up. My Dad says this is like Navy Seal training...

Catherine and Jason went to Whitaker's birthday party afterwards (Slyvia's brother) and Cat got to see her neighborhood friends and play for the night. (Teagan having "intestinal issues" now, so I kept her home as that didn't sound very festive).

Last stop, camping in the living room! Wish I had photos of this. Our friends down the street (Gates family) gave us this idea and Catherine loves it. Sleeping bags on the ground, light the candles in the fireplace (yes, we blow them out Mom!), books and a Rainbow in My Room to complete it.

First Words!

2010-07-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

Aslan. Our cat. They have become best buddies and she clearly said, "Aslan" today and pointed at him (it sounded more like "aswan"). She repeated it a few times.

We are still upside down on our sleep. Teagan wakes up every day at 2 am. Today, I made some progress and got her back to sleep from 6-10 am. We will skip the pm nap and hopefully have a longer sleep tonight. It does not matter if you put her to sleep at 10 pm, or 7 pm. She wakes up at 2 am, wide awake. It's been a rough week.

We are trying to get her in the sun as much as possible which can help reset your body's clock. Took a walk to Lake Harriet today.

Had a snack at the LH Bandshell - strawberry ice cream (Teagan) and "Tacos in a Bag" (Catherine). This is the last day Catherine will be 6. Tomorrow is the big 7!

Then looked at the ducks.

We're Home!

2010-07-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

We are home!!! And, what a great homecoming we had!

First, we were greeted at the airport by Betsy and family. Dahlia and Catherine fell on the ground hugging each other, and we even got hugs from Camille!

We came home and the first thing we saw was this great sign on our house, and balloons welcoming us home.There was a cake, flowers and a gift for big sister Catherine from our next door neighbors, dinner, wine, and groceries.

Are we lucky or what for these great people in our lives?

These are the neighborhood girls who worked on the sign and decorations and even our yard!!! THANK YOU GIRLS!!!!

Here we are getting out of the car seeing our friends. Love the group hug for the girls.

And the looking into the car at Teagan!

I'll post some more photos of Teagan in all this later:) She did pretty well after she got used to all the attention and love. She even cracked a smile and laughed. We are all pretty jet lagged. We all crashed at 8:30 pm. But, Teagan was up from 1230 am to 3:00 am. At one point, Aslan who has missed me a lot wanted to be in the bed with me, Teagan wanted to be in the bed, and neither wanted to be in the bed with the other. There was a lot of screaming and meowing. Good times.

Took a walk to the lake today - girls in the stroller. Teagan fed Catherine and both of us Cheerios from her cup the whole time. Until she fell asleep on Catherine's shoulder.

Here is our family of 4 hand sign:)

Last Step the Oath and The Red Couch

2010-07-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today was a BIG day. We did the red couch and took the oath. Not sure which is bigger. LOL!

The Red Couch is Famous at the White Swan! Above are Natalie and Catherine getting ready in our room for the photo shoot! Catherine is going to miss Natalie, a lot. She cried today when some of our group left and mentioned Natalie.

Big Sisters - Catherine, Bailey, Erin and Natalie waiting for the red couch.

In front of the favorite Birds' Cage

Bailey and Cat in front of the bird cage. Bailey gave Cat a going away gift today - a good luck coin with a ladybug. We will truly miss this family.

Family of Four!

Babies getting on the couch. Teagan is in-between her good friends Keenan (edge of couch) and Noah and under Angel's Home friends - Suhn and Grace.

Notice here the movement of Keenan on the left of the couch to a standing and Teagan turning to see why Noah is crying.

Last, we have Group 1591's photo. A HUGE Group! We took the oath together at the US Consulate later in the aftenoon. You take the oath on your child's behalf. Teagan will be an official US citizen when we land in the US on Sunday. The US Consulate is in a different place than it was for Cat's oath. It was a much nicer space.

We leave Guangzhou tomorrow morning and off to Hong Kong. We will say good bye to the rest of our group tomorrow morning. It's going to be hard to say good bye again.When we land on Sunday, we will have been in China 3.5 weeks. We are ready to come home!

Four more days!

2010-07-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

A little yesterday with some clouds (photo courtesy of Catherine).

Had a slow day yesterday. Teagan still seems to be sleepy and fussy a lot more since the vaccinations. A lot of parents whose children had to get them are saying this. Not all children are under the Hague process, so some children did not get any vaccinations. We took her to the clinic because she continued to pull on her ear. They said she was fine - just wax.

We got our VISA for Teagan!!!! One more step - the oath today, and we are done with paperwork in China. There is a 6 month follow-up at home. We had to wait in the room until 1130 to be notified that our visa was approved. At which point, Teagan fell asleep. And slept for 4 hours.

Yes, we took photos at the pool! After witnessing a very large man from another adoption group boldly take photos with a large camera and video set, we were emboldened. It seems like others were as well, as I saw no less than 5 people out with cameras yesterday.

Teagan started with her stacking cups - which are like socks by the way. Where do they go? How do you lose one at a time?

Catherine dived and swam around in the larger pool that is connected to the kiddy pool. in fact you can swim under a bridge to the two of them.

After stacking cups, Tegan wanted to float on her back.

Then it was off to climb the same two steps. 150 times.

Teagan took a rest with Jason, while Catherine and I took a trip to the waterfall.

We had a dinner cruise on the Pearl River last night. Here is the trip there.

And inside the boat.

And later outside on the deck.

Watching the birds

2010-07-06T23:10:00.001-07:00

Message from Michelle:

This is teagan and catherine in th hotel lobby and watching the birds. Teagan likes to scream everytime the birds sing....happy screaming.

Five minutes or so. Mostly of her back unfortunately as I was following the girls around.

Click on a video below to watch it:

Untitled
Video Length 4:40
Click here to watch

To learn more about the Flip Video Camcorder, click here.

Small scene in playroom

2010-07-06T22:40:00.001-07:00

Message from Michelle:
I'll be posting a few videos here. Mostly for the grandparents whom I think will enjoy seeing the girls doing eveyday things. This first one is a short scene in the playroom.
Click on a video below to watch it:

Untitled
Video Length 1:57
Click here to watch

To learn more about the Flip Video Camcorder, click here.

We're still here!

2010-07-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

Catherine took this photo during breakfast this morning during her

“photo shoot.” The breakfast area is really beautiful with a waterfall, bridge, fish, and a pond.

Here is her self-portrait.

Maybe the camera does add 5 pounds.

Yesterday, we toured the pearl factory. It’s a wholesale pearl market. Not too much to record there, here is Catherine recording the journey again.

In the afternoon we met to go back to the clinic for 3 more shots and a polio vaccination in the form of a pill. It is supposed to taste good, but Teagan spit out 5 times before she took it. Smart girl! I won’t editorialize more than that today on the wisdom of this particular Hague requirement.

We ventured to the playroom in the hotel for the first time. It’s a really nice space, with toys and seating. Friends from our travel group were there, so Catherine had a good time running around with Bailey. I think she was happy to have a large space to run around in. It’s hard to live in a hotel room for 3 weeks. I tried to take photos, but they were moving too fast.

Here is Teagan dancing to some music.

Playing with some blocks - alone....

and with Catherine.

She really liked this standing station with buttons and music. I am wondering if we saved the one we had for Catherine like this.

And a ball she likes.

We spent some great late afternoon time in the pool, in the shade. There were other families there with kids for Catherine to play with. Teagan got more adventuresome and did not want me to hold her all the time in the kiddy pool. She walked around, splashed and played with stacking cups and laid her head back in the water. Pretty cute!!

Another fussy night and vaccination fever this morning. Along with that came the first tantrum. Teagan was sitting on Jason’s lap. Catherine came and sat on his other knee. I was all set to take a photo of this very sweet scene, when Teagan started screaming. Then kicking at Catherine. She did not want to share Daddy’s lap. Jason tried to soothe her, tell her to stop kicking Catherine, and when she would not, he put her down on the ground.

She walked away from them and planted herself face first on the ground. Covered her eyes. Then, cried. She was fine in a couple of minutes and back to her normal Catherine-love state.

We returned to Starbucks and hung out with friends from our travel group. Emily took me to two great stores I had not seen before. Jason and I had planned to visit the church we saw last time we were here. It’s still here, but under construction. Disappointing for sure. Here’s the photo!

We had a good laugh about it because it goes with the general theme of this trip versus our last trip to China. This trip has been a very different experience.

Speaking of construction, there is so much construction here in GZ. They work all night. Which I know because I was up all night listening to jack hammers.

It was probably just as well. Things were heating up on Shamian Island and Teagan was falling asleep as we walked around.

Squeaky shoes

2010-07-04T18:15:00.001-07:00

Message from Michelle:

The girls in squeaky shoes.

Click on a video below to watch it:

Untitled
Video Length 5:10
Click here to watch

To learn more about the Flip Video Camcorder, click here.

Happy Fourth of July!

2010-07-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day from Guangzhou!

As you can see, our day did not start off well. Teagan had a restless night and was running a fever this morning. Probably from the vaccinations - I don't think she is really sick. As long as someone was actually holding her, she would stop crying.

Here is Jason with Catherine and Teagan - in matching outfits from my mom.

And me with the girls.

This is Catherine eating her favorite breakfast here - dumplings and noodles.

Teagan loves scrambled eggs, tater tots, watermelon, bananas, and noodles. She actually ate my pesto pasta last night at dinner. Here she is pointing to food she wants.

Here's the foot coming up on the table.

I think she is feeling better after the power breakfast and baby motrin.

We sat by Bailey and her family in our travel group this morning. Bailey and Catherine have become good friends and are both: turning 7 soon, have younger siblings now named Teagan and Keenan (a boy), both of whom have the same special need, mom's named Michelle, and dad's whose names start with a J (Jason and Jim), one "Irish" parent each, and one "French" parent each, and each have a parent who turned 40 crossing the international timeline! This is their "model pose" after breakfast.

And on the way to..........

....YES - STARBUCKS!

There used to be an independent coffee store right here when we here for Catherine. Jason, Cat, and I spent one great rainy afternoon in there, playing, listening to music and talking to the owner. It's a bit sad he is gone (although a latte was great). Another favorite of our's -the noodle shop- was also gone. In it's place is a gift store with laundry service. The most amazing laundry service.

If the battery was not out of the camera, I would photograph our laundry as it came back beautifully folded and sealed in bags. Amazing! And cheap. I am half tempted to have it all done before we leave for home and just throw the beautiful bags in our luggage.

We did a little more shopping on the way home. Not a lot as it was HOT, and both girls were starting to feel overheated. We have spent a great afternoon in the pool. I am really disappointed for the grandparents that I cannot take photos there. Catherine and Natalie swam all afternoon and Teagan loved the kiddy pool. She got progressively more brave and even got in up to her shoulders and also laid her head back in the water, on her own and laughed. A lot.

Tonight is the travel group's Thai dinner. I am looking forward to that! We were there last time, too. The food on this trip, after Shangahi, is a little disappointing - more "western chinese' food or just Western food than we had last time.

GZ Day 1- Part 2

2010-07-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, I won't be posting any photos of the great swimming pool and our girls in there. Photos not allowed. Jason was reprimanded for one photo he took of Catherine. Maybe I will be able to get some in.

There are a lot of streets in GZ that are really beautiful - although there is a lot of construction on this trip on those streets - so we took a walk after naptime to visit places we remembered from 2004.

At first, Teagan was a little subdued, but she perked up after some big sister love.

We made our way to some shops like Jordans, Susans, and Little Angels. There are a lot of little shops here for squeaky shoes, dresses, mah jong sets and things like that. There are some interesting statues and little areas along the way.

Here is Catherine choosing a Chinese style dress. She chose a matching one for Teagan.

There are also some fun noise makers – pictured here. Catherine chose the one she has in this photo.

Teagan chose one of these in the bracelet style you can kind of see here with the red, yellow, green balls that make noise. We were very popular going home.

It was pretty hot here this afternoon, but, I repeat myself. We started wilt - can you tell?

Went back to the hotel to sit by the river in the piano lounge. Beautiful views, high ceilings, lots of glass. Forgot the camera. After that dinner at the famous restaurant here for adoption travelers - Lucys!

We met some people from our group there.

One more thing before I go, she knows how to brush her teeth!!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!!!! We miss you all! It’s the morning of the 4^th here.

Greetings from GZ!

2010-07-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

Hello from Guangzhou! These are some views out of our hotel. We see the sun here -yay!- the smog is a lot less. We arrived last night- after spending the entire day basically getting here. There have been some renovations to the White Swan since our last trip. Our room is nice and light, but with two tiny twin+ beds.

It's great back to at the White Swan where we were with Catherine at this exact time in 2004.

Here we are at breakfast. Teagan thinks putting her foot up on the high chair is hilarious. And yes, she looks a little messy. It's hard with the palate during eating time for the little ones to not have food everywhere. The important thing is, she enjoys eating and likes all kinds of food. A true Duffy Shaw family member! Last night, she tried French Fries and then wanted to feed me them as well. About half the time, after they had already been in her mouth. She also wanted to feed Catherine. Catherine did not seem very impressed by this.

Here

I asked Catherine how she was feeling this morning after very little sleep. This was her reply.

I’m starting to feel more than a little of that way myself.

She did leave a very nice video message for her grandparents, which we will email to you (The Grandparents).

After breakfast we......drum roll please...... had more PAPERWORK! And, a medical check as well. First stop was getting her visa photo taken. I am wondering why the photos cannot be taken at one time in one place? After that, it was off to the medical exam.

For the medical exam, you bring your medical reports with you, the ones you receive about your child, and then you go to 3 different stations – ENT, height and weight, and body scan. The have videos for the older children to watch. This is Catherine and her friend, Bailey, watching Toy Story 3 while we waited for the exam. A great way to pass the time.

Teagan spent her waiting time banging her sippy cup on the seats.

I was interested to see what the ENT would say as her medical record says she has hearing loss in the left ear that was classified as moderate-severe and minor loss in her right ear. With CLCP, this can be temporary and fixed with tubes basically. But, it can be permanent if the loss is not due to the structure per se but rather nerve damage (this is a very loose description, but is captures the essence). However, the clinic check turned out to be not a very detailed check. They played music, and she turned her head. Her hearing was checked off as "Normal."

This is the Dr. checking her ears at the exam (above). She does clearly hear and we are so excited about how much we think she hears. I was not sure how much she could hear after reading the reports we first got. The reports ranged in classification from "Deaf in one ear, mild loss in the other ear" to "mild hearing loss in one ear, other ear normal." The reports told us she could respond to the sound of peoples' voices from reading the reports and I took that to be a strong sign. After seeing her, it is obvious that she responds to our voices and to music, and to other sounds. She dances to music and claps to it. She has been pulling on the left ear, a lot, but was fine on the plane (no fever, and she sleeps well at night). She sipped from her sippy cip when we took off an landed and that seemed to work well. We will have to wait and see until we get home.

We learned she weighs 20 pounds! Fully dressed and after eating an enormous breakfast. She weighed just about 20 pounds at her 10 month check up, according to our prior reports, so I had thought she would weigh more than 20 by now. The same thing was true with Catherine however - she weighed less at 11 months than she had at 9 months.

She didn't care for the exams and cried most of the time. She refused to even stand to get her height measured and crumpled into a ball and cried. It got worse after we were told she needed 7 shots (vaccinations) while we in China. I really try not to be bitter about the Hague process, I know there are problems in the world that Hague is trying to fix for children. But there is so much wrong with the Hague process for children.

Today, is just one more example of this. The children who are under the Hague paperwork process get their vaccinations here and the non-Hague families get to wait to do it at their own Dr.'s office in the US. So, she had 4 vaccinations today - one in each limb. She will have 3 more on Monday. It was sad and unfortunate that she had to have 4 vaccinations in a hot, humid, and loud place after being with us for a very short time. And, many times, Drs. in the US will tell you you need to redo your vaccinations anyway once you get to the US, so I don't even feel like I can say "at least they are done." At least she is under 2. If you are over 2, you have to have a TB test as well. Then possibly a chest XRAY. Then possibly, who knows what else. Of course, the long Hague process from referral to travel makes it more likely your child will indeed be over 2 by the time you get him or her. Anyway, after screaming "MAMA MAMA" and shaking her head no, she put her arm over her eyes and instantly fell asleep.

Let me end on a more up beat note! I think we have taught her to sign "more." Yes, yes, I used M&M's - but that is what operant conditioning is all about! Each time she wanted another M&M, I said "more?" and then made the hand sign. Then I moved her hands in the more position. She signed "more" 2 times for M&Ms and once for another peace of banana on her own!

Jason and Catherine checked out the pool today (before he left to do more paperwork, I am not kidding). The White Swan has a great pool - here is a web page photo. Jason is off with the camera.

Last Full Day in Zhengzhou!

2010-06-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today is our last full day in Zhengzhou! We leave tomorrow for Guangzhou.

Yesterday we spent the day swimming, and playing in the play-room. Catherine and I went out to lunch at Mama Mias in the hotel . There is not a lot to do here because we are in such a busy area without a lot of options for traveling for children. Crossing the street itself is pretty tough with the traffic. That’s ok though for us. Our lives are so buys at home, that this is a welcome break in many ways.

Today, we are seeing a lot more happiness!

And a lot more eating!

I finally figured out she likes to drink off of a spoon. As it turns out, that is how she was fed her bottle at Angel’s Home. The bottle that was given to us was a bottle with a long spoon. I honestly, had no idea what it was and have not used it.

Sadly, our 15-month has been trying to tell us she likes her bottle with a spoon and we thought it was just "baby play" - jam-the-spoon-into-the-bottle. She has repeatedly jammed her baby spoon into the nipple of the bottle and her sippy cup and shown it to me. This morning, when I had her bottle ready, she pointed to the spoon. When I fed her the bottle with the spoon, she clapped. For me.

There is a park behind our hotel along a river. We went there today right after breakfast because it was only 90 degrees and 90% humidity at that time. Catherine had a good time jumping on the "jumpy thing."

And playing on the park equipment. There were a lot of children out today, and lots of grandparents watching young children and exercising on the equipment as well.

My hair had a good time growing to previously unknown proportions and making strange swirls on my forehead. Jason suggested I start a blog about my hair in China. After the park, we walked down the other side of the river on the way home. On the other side of the river, we saw Grace and her parents. I said to Teagan, "There is Yao Yao!" (Grace's Chinese name). Teagan whipped her head around and pointed at Grace!

After that, we did some more swimming and hung out with some other families at the pool. Catherine played cards with her friend Natalie which gave me a chance to talk to Emily and her new son Noah.

I figured out how to post the flip videos here, so I'll hopefully be posting more soon. Thanks for all your emails and posts. We love reading them!

Teagan playing

2010-06-30T20:07:00.001-07:00

Greetings! Let's see how this flipvideo links for you on blogspot!

Untitled Document

Message from michelle:

Click on a video below to watch it:

Video 29
Video Length 6:46
Click here to watch

To learn more about the Flip Video Camcorder, click here.

************************************************

Michelle Duffy, PhD

3-247 Carlson School of Management

University of Minnesota

321 19th Ave S

Minneapolis, MN 55455

612-624-6842

duffy111@umn.edu

************************************************

It's official!

2010-06-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

It’s official! Teagan became legally our daughter today. We started off our day with more…..yes! you are correct! PAPERWORK! Part of that paperwork made our adoption official today.

Teagan slept through the night and woke up around 7 am. After a full bottle , she was ready to go! Here she is, above and below, before we left for our paperwork with the stacking cups.

In the lobby, we saw Grace and her family. Grace was one of the 3 babies from Angel Home that was adopted this week in our group. Teagan literally ran to Grace and put her hands on her leg and started babbling. Grace then reached into her snack mix container, and started feeding Teagan her snack mix! It was very touching to see the girls knowing each other and being happy to see each other. And Grace's kindness to feed Teagan!

We actually returned to the same government office to do some of our paperwork. Perhaps not the best plan to return the babies to the same spot today after an exhausting and emotional day for the babies (and adults), but maybe there are reasons that I don’t understand as to why it needs to be this way. They have a play area, and Catherine, Teagan and the other girls spent some time together there.

After that, it was back to the hotel for lunch and swimming for Catherine, and lunch and naptime for Teagan. She spent most of her time at lunch banging chopsticks on the table, trying to eat my sushi rolls and squishing them, and rubbing her eyes.

While she was napping, Jason and Catherine joined some other families for a trip to the Lotus Center for shopping for water, squeaky shoes, and other essentials. Catherine selected a very cool drum and Marengo set for Teagan.

When she woke up from her nap, she looked and me and gave me her foot. This made me laugh since last night I kissed her foot before I put her to bed as a game She is a lot more active today than yesterday and has more interest in exploring. She will let me rock her to sleep as she did today on the bus after our paperwork, and she likes to walk to Jason for hugs. She smiles anytime Catherine walks in the room. When she smiles, her whole face lights up.

The hotel set up a playroom for our families, so we visited the playroom when Catherine and Jason came back. Catherine and I practiced heading balls, and Teagan and Catherine played in the ball area.

After that it was dinner time and then off to bed. We ran into some of our group in our hallway, including the girls from Angel Home. Teagan clearly loves both these girls, and vocalizes more than normal when she is around them. Did I say yet how much I love our travel group?

Some other notes on Teagan today - she really likes different games – such as imitating us clapping and snapping our fingers or handing us things etc. I think this day wore her out and getting used to us too - Teagan was so tired she went to bed after only 1 ounce of bottle. She is having a hard time getting enough liquids in. I know with cleft it is hard, but it's harder than I thought it would be for her, even with special cups and bottles. It's so hot here, that she is sweating a lot, so I need to think about how to give more liquid.

These last photos are right before bedtime. She was shaking the toys Catherine got her and saying "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma." How great is that?! I am not sure she was actually saying words with meaning or just babbling. Babbling something clearly at this point is just fine ! I have a very sweet video of this, but am not sure how to post it.

Small update - she smiles!

2010-06-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

Not to be a "crazy mother," but Teagan woke up for a brief time and was in much better spirits after some chicken and rice congee and apple juice. The four of us played a game of share the cups and drop the cups on the ground. She smiled and laughed A LOT and made some sounds imitating what we were saying. She has the cutest smile and laugh. The photos probably don't really capture it, but I thought I'd post them anyway.

She's back asleep now. She is a bit of wild sleeper, legs sticking out thought the crib, arms sticking out. I had her on the bed, but she kept rolling off. She seems peaceful for the moment. She likes to be rocked to sleep. I wonder if they did that at Angel's Home, because when I put her in a rocking position and started singing, she instantly put her fingers in her mouth and closed her eyes and went off to sleep. OR, perhaps it is my singing that is trying to escape from. LOL!

One thing I did not mention in my prior post is watching the the nannies leave from the various SWIs. I could see the first two sets of nannies (before Teagan) out the window in their car/van crying as they left the children. I am happy they care for the children so much, and yet, it's so sad for them at the same time to have to always say good bye. We had a gift to give to Angel's House, and we had to give it instead to the SWI official from Pingdingshan to give to her because the Angels Home founder had had to leave our building because she was crying to say good bye, the babies were crying every time they saw her. I think you can see in Teagan, already, that care she received coming through for her.

June 28th- Double "Gotcha Day!"

2010-06-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

Here we are before we left the hotel this morning to get Dou Dou (translation – Little Peas). Like we did on the day we got Catherine, we took a photo of the crib before and after! Except this time, Catherine is in Teagan's crib! She is holding the information sheet we have about Teagan.

For those of you who don't know, June 28th is also the anniversary of the day we got Catherine! A doubly special day for the Duffy Shaws! Let me just say before moving on, Catherine is a SUPER big sister. We are so proud of her.

After we left the hotel room, we joined the other waiting families in the lobby, for what seemed a very long time. We took pictures of our families before the babies arrived and plan to do the after shot when things calm down a bit. I love this photo of all the big sisters (jie jies).

We took a short bus trip to a government office to wait for our children. The experience was quite different from our trip to Dianjiang when we adopted Catherine. This time, there were many different SWIs represented this time and so the babies arrived at different times, in no previously determined order. The babies from Angel Home and Pingdingshan arrived maybe 30-45 minutes after we arrived and after some of the other families met their children. The good thing about that was being able to take photos of the new babies and families meeting for the first time.

Ok - now for what you probably have been waiting for - Teagan arrives! I saw the car arrive with Teagan, and spotted her in there. It's hard to describe the emotion - it's overwhelming really.
I believe I started jumping up and down and pointing to her and yelling "It's our baby!" This first two photos are Teagan, coming in the door, in the arms of one of the Pingdingshan official’s arms. She is beautifu! But clearly a little stunned. It was VERY hot and loud in the room – read babies crying- and I cannot imagine what this transition was like for her. She has lived at Angel's Home for the past year, and in their note to us (See Below), Angel's home noted they consider her their child too. We have loved her since February 5th, but we are strangers to her.

I am going to be honest with you, I basically grabbed Teagan out of the SWI official's arms (see below). In fact, when I did not think they were giving her to us fast enough, I demanded she be handed to me after announcing in Chinese that I was her mother. I did wait to do this after I saw one of the other babies go to their parents, so it is not as bad as it could be.

She is wearing a dress we sent her in the care package! (Side note- it is a 6-12 month size....she is smaller than I thought she would be!). Most of the photos of us getting her are on other peoples' cameras. So, I will post more later as well.

This is Catherine talking to Teagan. Teagan really likes her, and Catherine is the only family member who has managed to get a smile out of her.

I love these photos of both girls are Jason’s lap!

In a change, one of the Angel Home founders was there with the Pingdingshan SWI officials. This usually does not happen, but there were special circumstances this time. So we were able to meet one of the founding ladies from Angels Home. She is the woman below in the yellow striped shirt. We are grateful we were able to speak with her briefly, thank her for what they have done, and we even have some photos. Angel's Home gave us a very large bag filled with clothes, a photo album with personal notes written to her, mostly in Chinese, so I will need to have those translated, her formula, bottle, some clothes, diapers, wipes, bowl, spoon and so on. How great is that?! I could also tell she received the 4 care packages we sent her! We also got back the cameras we sent to them. Can't wait to get those developed.

Here is the Angel Home founder, with us in a group photo and hugging Catherine.

After that, we stayed there for another two hours or so, waiting for other babies, and doing some paperwork. She fell asleep on the bus, and stayed asleep all the way to the hotel room. She napped for about an hour. We have spent the rest of the day napping, feeding and playing. She really likes stacking blocks and cups! Catherine, Teagan, and I spent some time banging the cups together, and putting them in stacks (Jason was doing more paperwork - it's hard to believe there is more paperwork, but there is). Catherine has read her 3 books, and showed her different toys as well as the location of the hotel bathroom. Teagan also likes my sunglasses case. She can walk, but seems to really just want to sit in our laps. She walked to Jason and hugged him. Then, sat down in his lap!

Catherine has been to the pool twice today with her friends - there are 6 of them now the same age or within one year!

I brought with us, 3 different kinds of cleft bottles, and I am glad I did. She did not like the first one, but was able to use the second one. It takes a lot of time for a baby with an un-repaired cleft to finish a bottle, and I can see how she ended up so small at 3 months old. I spent about 40 minutes on the first bottle of 5 ounces with her. She also really likes the nubby sippy cups for juice. I think all things considered, she is doing pretty well. She has a very sweet personality.

Unfortunately, she fell back into a deep sleep at 5 pm here, which means we are looking at an early wake up tomorrow! You can't tell here, but she often sleeps in her signature hand position.

Jason and I want to thank you for all the support and love you have given our family during this process. It means a lot to all 4 of us!

We're Here!

2010-06-26T23:26:00.000-07:00

We just arrived in Zhengzhou! They just moved Teagan's crib into our hotel room! I'll be sure to post photos of that soon!

On our bus trip here from the airport, we all received information about our children. We have a sheet of questions and answers about Teagan about her daily routine, what she eats, likes, what her personality is like etc. It makes it so much more real! She is taking one nap a day and has two bottles a day. I am really happy she is still taking a bottle two times a day - it's a great way to bond. She is described as "lively and active" (sounds like someone else in our family!) and "very afraid of strangers." I hope she has at least been seeing our photos.

The bus will come tomorrow morning at 9:30 to take us to the children!

Our last day in Beijing was a whirlwind. We started the day at the Great Wall. Did I say it was hot? The number of older people (as in 70 years plus) and women in high heels climbing as well, was impressive.

Jason made it all the way to the top. Catherine and I made a pretty good distance before returning to the ground for a Popsicle.

The cramping in our calves on the way down was a surprise. It’s a pretty steep climb though with tall steps, especially for a 6 year old! I tried to get some photos in here that Jason took from the top. All the little girls were troopers during this climb, and one even made it to the top!

After the Great Wall, it was off to a Jade Factory and lunch. Teagan and Catherine now have matching bracelets. Next stop was the Bird’s Nest – the Olympic Stadium. We have photos of Teagan there so the mom’s who have children from Angel’s Home lined up for a photo in front the Bird’s Nest as well! In fact, on this blog, I have a photo of Teagan, Grace, and Suhn in front of the Nest. It’s a pretty amazing place. The girls had fun running around and getting some of their “energy out.”

Our last stop before returning to the hotel for dinner, was an acrobatic show. We have some flip video of the event that perhaps I can post, but the photos didn’t really work. It was pretty spectacular.

It was a great day and I am glad we got to see so many things I know Teagan has seen. It was very hard to know she was in the city we were in. More so, as we drove through the district she was in.

We are off to unpack and then to the bank.

The next time I post, we will be a family of four!