Introducing....Drew Anna LinYuan West

Here is Drew's story :)

In January, we decided that we wanted another daughter a sister for Olivia.  On January 9, since we are too old for South Korea, we requested the China adoption packet.

After a month of hard work, filling out forms and collecting papers (lots of papers!), we sent in our application packet.  Then the homestudy and the background checks - oh the background checks...Dave got his back quickly - approved.  My fingerprints were "bad" and got returned twice - resulting in and extra month and half wait.  We went to Disneyland at the beginning of June, and while eating lunch, got a call from the Chinese Consulate....our Colorado Springs background checks had the wrong notary date - got that fixed from vacation!  Next the USCIS approval - fingerprints in Denver - quick and easy - but something in our homestudy was off - so that had to be fixed.  Luckily our agency found out about the issue before I ever got the letter from USCIS and was able to get it fixed right away.

Finally all we were waiting on was our USCIS I800a approval to be certified by the consulate so that our dossier could be sent to China - and we got the call.  Thursday, June, 28 - now a special day - my phone rang and it was Regina from our adoption agency.  They had received some new referral files and there were some that we might want to review.  Um, yes, I'm surprised, of course!  We talked about 4 referrals - one of which was not a medical condition we had marked.  But our agency thought we might be interested.  (For those who haven't adopted internationally - in your paperwork there is a medical conditions checklist.  This paper lists all sorts of medical conditions a child could have, and we had to say yes/maybe to conditions we thought we were prepared for.  Hard thing to do.)

Based on what Dave and I had talked about through the process, I made some decisions on reviewing, then I called Dave right away - and he answered!  We decided we better have lunch.  We reviewed the information (without looking at pics first) and talked about the little girl whose referral our agency thought we might be in, but wasn't on our list.  We did some googling from our phones, read some stuff, and talked.  On the way back to work, we called and got an appointment with Olivia's pediatrician for that afternoon.  Not long after dropping me off, Dave called and asked "Can you get that other referral file?"  I had been thinking the same thing!  We got the file, and I had to read it without him and go ahead and look at the pictures - after all we needed prints of everything for the doctor!

After we met with the doctor, we thought and talked more and did some research.  That weekend started the Air Force Academy Band 4th of July Tour - so Olivia and I traveled with Dave Saturday through Monday.  That gave us lots of time in the car to talk.  By Sunday, I had bought Olivia and Drew matching dresses at the OshKosh sidewalk sale.  Monday, we got a return call on some questions we had and then we were ready to call our agency and say yes!  

Drew Anna LinYuan West

Monday, July 2, we officially said the words - and then surprise family with a picture text and the words "Meet Drew".  Of course, during this we were driving up Berthoud Pass and reception was spotty - so no one could call us back.

Since this, our dossier was logged in to China and we've received our initial approval to move forward.  We are waiting on official Letter of Acceptance from China (I'm hoping for next month).

And that's how we found each other!

Home Almost 1-1/2 Years and Doing It Again...

Olivia has been home almost a year and a half. I can't believe it, yet I can't believe we were ever without her. She is pretty amazing and we are very blessed.

Olivia is now about 37 inches tall and weighs about 31 pounds. That an increase of 5 inches and 7 pounds since February 2011. She is mostly wearing her 3T clothing...wow!

We are having so much fun, that we are adopting again!  We were officially logged in to China on July 13 and today our agency locked in our match!

Yes, I said our match!  We've been waiting for a month to say this!  We have been matched with a beautiful 18 month old girl.  Her birthday is January 5, 2011, and she is beautiful, adorable, so many good things.

Our agency called us on Thursday, June 28, and said they had a referral for us to review - that was quite a surprise because we were still waiting for our USCIS pre-approval to be certified and our dossier to be sent off.  Dave and I got together and had lunch and talked, made an appointment for pediatrician to review (that day!) then went back to work, talked more, met with the doctor, thought and talked, thought and talked...luckily we had a trip planned for the weekend so we were stuck in the car and talked more...Tuesday, July 3, we made our decision and called our agency to accept.  We hadn't told anyone, so we texted a picture to the family members - they were all very surprised!

Then we sat and waited...our dossier was sent to China on July 9 and we were logged in July 13 - of course, we just found out today.  So celebration begins!

Ok, I'm still a terrible blogger - but here's my update at 10 weeks, 2 days home...

Olivia knows about 60 English words now - happy is one my favorites, especially when she is happy happy! She is over 33 inches tall and weighs about 27 pounds. We haven't been to the doctor in over 2 weeks - yay!!! Last time was a sinus infection. Olivia has been been spending lots of fun time with her daddy. They've started going on afternoon hikes with Jessie. Olivia has even gotten to help walk Jessie by holding her leash - I'll get that picture off my phone and post it later.

Olivia has been sleeping in her own room for several weeks now - most nights it's all night long, but sometimes she still needs us during the night. We are getting through it - 9 weeks ago, I wouldn't have thought I would ever sleep in my own bed again.

We had pictures taken at Target in mid-March while my sister and nieces were here - we got some great pictures and were easily suckered out of our money...amazing how much pictures can cost...but I bought them and the CD :)

After we had our family pictures taken, Olivia had more pictures with her cousins, Jordan and Sydney. This was my favorite shot - Olivia was supposed to be sitting between her cousins, but she didn't really like to sit still...

Here is Olivia's Easter dress - there would be a better picture (maybe) but my camera decided to corrupt the CompactFlash card that afternoon - I got 10 of the 30 pictures we had taken - but the camera place has recovered some - just haven't gotten there yet. On a side note, I may have gotten my mother's day present early - new camera!!!
I'm not sure what is going on here - but she was just so cute that I had to include it...notice the empty yogurt cup - one of her favorite "toys".

We've also gotten our finalization date - August 25 in Larimer County! That is amazing and we can't wait.

Sorry...

Ok, I'm a really bad blogger...I can barely turn on my computer without help anymore though...so sorry! But here's an update :)

This Friday marks 8 weeks since our Forever Family Day! What a wild 8 weeks it has been. Olivia has changed so much in these weeks it is unbelievable - I'll try to post pictures soon. Since we got home, we have had chicken pox, rhotavirus, scarletina, and a sinus infection - but we have a great pediatrician...

Olivia has grown about 1 inch and now has 45 English words - among her favorites: Jess (the dog), good girl, hi, hey, and light. She does say mama and daddy and nana and pa - which makes us happy.

We still have some flopping, but not as much. When she gets tired or hungry (or doesn't get mama when she wants), there is some flopping to the floor that often results in head banging. So straight to the "pen" (pack n play) she goes, until she is ready to be a big girl again.

Our biggest problem is still the sleeping though. I was sleeping with her in her room on a mattress and getting up a couple times a night until 2 weeks ago, when I got the virus. So Dave took care of her all night and magically she slept - in her pack n play - all night long - without getting up. I couldn't believe it! So we moved her to the pack n play in her room and she sleeps all night some nights, but not others. Sometimes there's more crying and she comes to our bed half way through - but mostly she's in her own room, by herself - except for 1 diaper change a night - working on that still...

Life with Olivia is great! She is the most amazing little person ever and we are just so blessed to have her home and to be her family. I can't imagine life without her now (even though I miss a great night's sleep). She is a joy and her little smiles are worth everything!

Day of the Screaming Child and Heights/Weights Chart

What should you really do when you child is screaming on and off all day? I wish I had the answers. I know she doesn't feel good - how could chickenpox feel good? But still, it's so hard...

It started when she woke up at 4a - fighting and screaming. A bottle of milk calmed that one down and she slept until 8:30a. The day was happy for a while, but the fussing started when I went to take a shower - even though Daddy made her a waffle. We often think this is obligatory crying to show Daddy he's just not her favorite right now, sigh. But sometimes it means throwing herself on the floor and crying and usually hitting her head. Or running to the couch and burying the face in it and crying. In fact right now, she's got her head on my leg and is crying like we've been horrible to her.

We tried the nap today - she actually took one yesterday, which was only the 2nd time at home. I rocked and rocked her but she woke up as soon as she was asleep enough to lay down. Then she was happy for a bit and got grumpy again...so a ride in the car to cause to nap - we drove to Castle Rock and back. Of course, she only slept on the way home - so Daddy drove the long way down Hwy 83 (thanks Daddy!) Woke up and started fussing immediately.

Now after about an hour of crying and finally a new dose of ibuprofen, we are doing a little better. The crying has stopped for now, but the chickenpox look worse, so there might be benadryl tonight.

On another note, I finally converted all her height and weight information we received and I've charted it at gerber.com - here is a screenshot of where she is and has been below.

Mail for Olivia and other things

This week we've gotten lots of mail addressed to Olivia. Welcome letter from USCIS, letter stating her petition had been received, and then Social Security card and today the Green Card - Yay! But extra special was a package from Grammie and Granddaddy with snowman jammies and a stuffed Eeyore - just what a sick girl needs.

Of course, we also got some new toys at Target before we knew we were sick - playskool pop ups when you push buttons are fun!

Doctor's visit, again...

Well today we had our 3rd doctor's visit in 2 weeks...

• Visit 1 last week was for constipation (still working on that)
• Visit 2 this week for well baby visit - followed by a blood draw that was horrible - just horrible
• Visit 3 today - chickenpox - seriously?

A couple of days ago I thought she maybe just had a little bug bite, this morning it looked like a rash, and then worse...ugh. So we are home now until Olivia scabs over. Counting it backwards through incubation, it looks like Olivia was possibly exposed when she went for her Visa appearance in South Korea. So we called our agency to pass that one on.