A Big Update

On February 3rd Emma had her surgery.

The hospital was great about helping Emma not get upset. They had a playroom in the general waiting room and another playroom in the surgical area. They provided a Mandarin translator, showed her pictures of the room she would have her surgery and let her decorate her face mask. They also put smelly Lip Smacker chapstick inside her mask and had her practice smelling it before she went into the operating room.

I took her into the operating room at about 7:30 am and stayed with her until she fell asleep. Emma did not cry at all. I was able to see Emma in recovery just as she was waking up at about noon.

We found out that medication wears off on Emma quicker than average, so the first twelve hours were hard on Emma and me. Once they figured out her med schedule, though, she was back to her old self. Unfortunately that was at about midnight. I feel bad for the family sharing the room with us. Emma would start getting loud then would shush herself. She is so funny.

The requirements for her to leave the next day were that she could keep food down, that she was off morpine and that she would take her oral meds. She ate dinner that same night, so that wasn't an issue, she stopped taking morphine first thing the next morning and started taking her meds with no problems, so we were ready to go.

We took it easy the next couple of days.

On Sunday Jake's mom came into town and stayed until Tuesday. It was great to have her out and get to meet Emma.

On Monday Emma had a check up and got a new cast with a rubber heal so she could walk and she did. By Wednesday she walking all by herself! Unfortunately her cast fell off on Saturday and her new cast has a much more angled knee bend so she can't walk by herself anymore. How frusterating for her. But, she gets her prosthetic foot on the 23rd and she should be up and running again.

One Month

I can't believe it, Emma has been home for a month! She is so amazing.

The English words she knows are;

Mama

Baba

Emma - "Mema"

up - "uppa"

down - "dah"

no

yea

go

bye-bye (with a wave) - "da da"

yum

night night - "no na"

noodle

Her favorite things to do are;

play dress-up, especially accessories. (hats, necklaces, bracelets)

playing with junk mail (she is constantly putting paper in and out of the envelopes and figuring out what fits into each envelope)

playing with cars (she even makes the car noices)

coloring and balancing crayons on their ends

and climbing, climbing, climbing.

Emma's surgery

Emma's surgery is scheduled for February 3rd. She will have her foot and ankle amputated and her femur and tibia straightened.

I am very nervous. She is so strong and resilient that I am sure she will bounce back, but I don't want my baby to be in pain.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Little Miss Pretend Play and Independent

Emma's pretend play is getting very elaborate and it is so fun to watch.

Tonight we were playing up in Emma's playroom and I gave her a yogurt cup and a spoon. She automatically started pretending to eat from the cup. She then went over to the little table and sat down to eat some more. She pretended to put something into the cup, mixed it up then ate some more. She put one of her babies into the play high chair and another baby onto the second chair and started pretending to feed them. She then started going to the refrigerator and getting more containers. She gave one cup to each of the babies and a few for herself. She was getting up and down off of the chair by herself and walked around on her knees to get things.

She is starting to get frustrated that she cannot walk. She tries to walk, but since her legs are so different in length it is just too hard. She can side-step while holding onto something, but for any real distance she has to crawl or walk on her knees. This is why we are looking for her to get her surgery sooner rather than later. Not being able to walk is very hard for our little independent girl.

Speaking of independence. The last couple of weeks Emma has started wanting to do everything herself. She wants to wash herself in the bath (so much so that I have to hide the soap after awhile or she will use the whole container in one bathtime) and today she wanted to brush her own teeth. Considering that I don't think she had ever brushed her teeth before we got her, this is big. She hated toothbrushing for quite awhile.

You know, I say awhile a lot, but Emma has only been a part of our family for 24 days. Not even a month. Hard to believe.

Here are a couple of pics I took tonight.

A photo I took the night before Ba Ba (Daddy in Mandarin) left. We miss him a lot.

A Great Day

Emma had a great day today. Yesterday she was a little cranky all day, but today she was so happy and interacting with everyone she met.

We had our first appointment with a pediatric orthopedist this morning. We got lucky and a nurse squeezed us in so that Jake could be at the appointment before he goes back to school. We have a second opinion appointment next week. It went a lot better than we thought. We were worried because Emma's right femur is shorter than her left. From the pictures we received with her medical info we thought it was just her fibia and foot. The doctor said that what she has is the most common malformation and bone bending is common. He would be able to straighten the bones and would only need to amputate the ankle and foot. Yeah! She even flirted with one of the doctors! This is the first time we have seen her flirt and she chose a doctor, she aiming high, good girl!

We also met with an in-home childcare provider today. She is only licensed for 6 children which is great because we think Emma will do better in a small group. The provider has a couple of babies and one other two year old. She will start when Jake goes back to school next week. And she literally lives three minutes from our house.

Emma has been trying new things and found out today that she can climb up onto the speaker in our living room. I had to take pictures.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday

Wishing everyone a happy new year!

Jake and I are justing relaxing together tonight, Emma did not sleep well last night and we are tired. Lets just say we did an emergency load of laundry.

And happy birthday Honey. Jake is 31 years old today. I will miss you when you go back to school.

We're Home

We arrived home on Christmas Eve. Emma slept most of the flight and played the rest of the time. We are so thankful.

Leah's Mom, Dad, sister and brother-in-law came down for lunch on Christmas day then Emma opened Christmas presents. Thank you Kim!

Since we have been home Emma has been great. It is almost like she knows that she is home and we are all more relaxed. She plays with me all day long and is so giggly. There are a few lasting effects of her past, but we are amazed at the progress she has made so far. She has even started to imitate some words.

Unfortunately, Jake seems to have mutated what Emma and I had in China. We spent a long time in the ER this morning to find out that he has the beginnings of pneumonia. He is all drugged up now and hopefully starts to feel better soon.