SNOW!

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

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!

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!

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: