Merry Christmas!!

6 Months ago today!

6 months ago today, we had been in Rwanda for just a day... we traveled down the unbelievably steep, dirt road... came upon the brick barrier walls and the shocking blue gates. My eyes were filling with tears as I was realizing what we were about to experience. This is what we had been waiting for... after what seemed like a few hundred negative pregnancy tests, a few hundred prayers, a few hundred pieces of paper, a few thousand dollars (understatement!), a few thousand miles.... it was all of the emotions welling up inside of me and I could not believe the day had finally arrived.

I am not one for being so open with intimate details, and with this being the 'world wide web' it leaves me feeling a bit exposed!.... this photo almost feels like I'm showing you the moment I was giving birth to my second child :) But, here it is... the moment we first laid our eyes on our daughter; May 23, 2010. I won't soon forget that moment.. and I thank Hanna (I believe) for capturing it with our camera! What a picture!

As I reflect on the past 6 months... I have so much to be thankful for. How blessed we are to be the parents of two wonderful little girls. Evelyn is the best big sister and Lindy is relishing in the attention that comes from her. As we were driving in the car this evening, Evelyn was getting the best laughs out of Lindy... it fills my heart with unspeakable joy. God is good, He continues to amaze me.

Month in Review

Okay... so more than a month! This summer has flown by.... it has been great, but I can't believe it is nearing the end of September!

Dan and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last week! I keep thinking that I can't be old enough to have been married for 10 years! HA! But, it's true. And I have to say, it gets better with time... we were so perfectly meant for each other. I am so happy to have him for my husband.

Evelyn started kindergarten! I am in denial that she is old enough for that! She is even riding a school bus! She LOVES it. Her kindergarten class is half day in the afternoon and the first week she said, "mommy, I wish my school was all day"! She also has her first loose tooth... being a dental hygienist myself, you would have thought that I should be expecting that to come. Well, I guess I am in denial of that possibility, too!

Lindy is developing at what seems to be warp speed! She has gone from crawling to walking to now, nearly running in a matter of one month! For the first week, I kept forgetting to put shoes on her because she had always been held when we left the house! She is jabbering a blue streak. She seems to verbalize a running commentary while riding in the car... I wish I knew what she was saying! Right now, the only words that we understand are "uh-oh, momma, and dada". She has been super healthy for quite awhile and we are so pleased with that, the first two months home, her poor body had quite the adjustment to our environment. Our pediatrician was surprised to be diagnosing pneumonia in July! Through it all, Lindy has done so well! I can sense that we are about to be teething her first molars... so that may bring some excitement! :)

We feel very blessed by God in how He has created our family... Even though we have only had Lindy home for just over 3 months, she feels so much a part of us. I tell people often that I just know that God ordained her to be with us... the complexity of it all, the tragic circumstances that led us to her... He had a hand in it. Praise be to God.

We have a friend who is great with a camera and she graciously took TONS of pictures of our family... I'll share a few here.

Family Picture Time

Well, the intentions were good!.... we planned a time to get some family pictures.... the forecast for the day was thunderstorms. We were in a bit of a time crunch due to the fact that my grandmother's health is declining and my parents were headed to Indiana to see her and they wanted to be able to take a family picture that included our newest family member! So, we had a window of time between the storms and well, you know how pictures can be!! Here they are:

Happy Birthday, Dan!!

So, yesterday was Dan's birthday... not a monumental one by any means... 31, for anyone wondering. :-) Anyway, I had ordered him a gift online and was worried that I hadn't received it yet... time was running out. Well, we were sitting on the couch after we had a birthday dinner with family and Dan asked if I had gotten the mail yet that day. I hadn't, so he went out to check the mailbox.... low and behold! A package had arrived! I was so happy that it came in time! He is riding in a local charity event on Saturday and I am so glad he can wear my present to him! Okay, so what I got him was a cycling jersey....not just any cycling jersey! It is from a non-profit group that uses bicycles as a way to help people in Rwanda! It's called Project Rwanda and they look like a really cool organization... Anyway, here he is!! Ready to Ride! He went on a short ride the night of his birthday and got to wear it for the first time. I love the design and the beautiful colors!

Happy Birthday, Babe!! Love you more than you know!!!

Growing in size and in my heart...

Lindy had her first appointment with our 'regular' pediatrician today, up to this point we have been seeing a doctor that specializes in international adoption at our Children's Hospital... Unfortunately, we had to get her up to date on some vaccines, although our doctor was impressed that she has had many of the standard vaccines and really didn't have that much to catch up on! I was also anxious to see how much she has grown... it is harder for me to notice because I am with her everyday, but we have had some friends mention how much she is growing in a matter of a few weeks... they were right! She has grown an inch and gained 2.5 pounds since our medical appointment in Kenya. She is 50% for height and between 25-50% for weight.

Something I didn't think about was filling out the paperwork.... there was an entire section on family history and pregnancy and delivery... It brought me back to the thoughts of her very early days of life... what her birth mother must have been going through... the emotions involved in giving up your child after having gone through the pains of child birth... Evelyn (my oldest daughter) loves to watch the video of her own birth... the video starts out with me in a rocking chair about 3-4 days before she was born, we were watching my belly move around... fascinated by it, and then it follows us to the hospital, a brief section of moaning and groaning on my part and then the glorious presentation of this beautiful baby girl all covered in slime... and various wires and clamps all monitoring her heart rate and respiration rate and temperature and whatever else... And I think of my youngest daughter, with no glorious presentation into the world... no video documentation... I don't know if it was in a hospital or in a home... or who was present... there were probably no wires monitoring her vitals....We are grateful for the mercy of the Lord that allowed her to be brought to the Sisters, who cared for her and gave her the love she so desperately needed and deserved! And we are so thankful that this journey has led us to her! She is home and we are overjoyed!

A little something I have noticed is how my love for her has changed in the past week or so... I am not sure how to describe it, but it just feels like she has always been a part of me somehow. Don't get me wrong, I have loved her from the moment I saw her... even before, and the first time I saw her in our referral picture I knew God had ordained her to be ours... but lately, I have just had a deeper love for her; the love a mother has for HER child. Maybe it is partly due to the fact that I have been with her for seven weeks now and that initial love I had for her has grown. She is familiar, she is mine, she is a gift from God and I am forever grateful. She is what we have been waiting for... and boy, was it worth the wait!

Happy 4th of July!

We went out to the farm today to see that the corn was definitely not "knee high by the Fourth of July"!! In fact, it was about 10 feet high!

The weather has been outstanding and we have had such a great time with family and friends! Our July 4th weekend has been filled with parades, picnics, bike rides, cookouts and fireworks! Fun.Fun.Fun.

Lindy's favorite funny face these days.

Evelyn's new friend! I love 'big girls'! :-)

Lindy loved riding in the buggy for the first time!

Pool Time and Pictures

We took some time taking pictures of her in a dress from my Aunt Mary.... I wanted to be able to include a picture of her in the dress with a thank you note! We had fun sitting in the grass (which desperately needs mowed!). I also got to capture her latest funny face... she puts her chin down to her chest and looks up at you with those big brown eyes and gives a sly smile! Too cute!!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here! So I thought I would post a cute picture of Lindy enjoying the water.... but, because of her giardia, I haven't been letting her in the pool and I was feeling bad for her to just have to sit and watch... So, we put water in a tub and let her splash around! She loved it!

Moving along

Well, for the most part... we are moving along swimmingly! Literally, we are enjoying the heat and swimming in the pool! :) I can't believe we have been home for just two weeks... it feels longer for some reason. Lindy is doing so great! In fact, the last two nights she has slept a solid 12 hours without waking up in the middle for a bottle... that has been fantastic! The only major hiccup for her has been the medicine she is taking for the giardia... She HATES it! I feel like we are torturing her when we give it to her.... and we are working so hard at building trust with her and assuring her that we love her and care for her.... and then we have to literally restrain her to get the medicine down and she looks up at us with this look of fear.... as if to say, "Why are you doing this to me?". It has been hard. I tried mixing it with food, no luck. (in fact, I tried a bite of it and didn't want to swallow! Why would she?).. we tried mixing it with chocolate syrup... nothing... she actually refused a spoonful of chocolate syrup!! Something has to give. I think I may be calling the doctor today. We are only on day 4 of 10!

The good news is that Evelyn tested negative for giardia! So, who knows why she was having some symptoms... possibly just re-adjusting to the states? When I told her that she didn't have any of those germs in her poopie, she said "good, but do they know why my tummy is so upset all the time?" She is so sweet...

Evelyn has two playdates this week with friends from school. She is SO excited! I am glad that she is being able to get out and have fun. She has been remarkable as a big sister... I have not seen an ounce of jealousy, if anything she wants to love on Lindy a little too much! Lots of hugs and kisses to the point of Lindy pushing away a little bit. :) I'm sure things could change, but for now I am so happy to see Evelyn really embracing the big sister role!

News of the Day

Okay, so the news of the day is: Lindy has giardia! I know, I was surprised too... she has no symptoms, no diarrhea, no overly bad smelling diapers, nothing! So, we are starting a medicine today... haven't given the first dose yet, but we hear it doesn't taste very good... That's exciting, especially since she hates medicine in the first place! We'll see how this goes.... three times and day for the next ten days! Woo Hoo!

So, after hearing this news we started to question whether Evelyn may have it as well... she has had some unexplained diarrhea and upset tummy issues...so I just was at the doctors office picking up stool sample containers for Evelyn... it's a little easier getting a stool sample from a diaper! fun.fun. :)

Doing Good!

Well, we have had almost a week at home... our bodies are well adjusted to time change! We are finally not tired until it is actually bed time, instead of nearly dozing off at the dinner table! :) Evelyn is so happy to be back home with Chase and Campbell! She has been playing with them as much as she can... it's so great to have cousins as neighbors! Dan is back to full swing at work... crazy how busy it can be after being gone for two weeks! Lindy and I are getting into a groove, too! She is doing great with sleeping... going twelve hours at night and 31/2-4hours in two naps during the day! She is becoming very animated and loves to play peek-a-boo and repeat anything the kids do! She will cover one eye with her hand and wait for us to say, "Where's Lindy?" She just smiles and smiles! Evelyn, Lindy and I got in the pool for the first time yesterday... the weather here hasn't been quite warm enough to do that yet... It was nice to just relax and have the sunshine on our faces... Lindy can't stop splashing the water in her face!

We are on our way to Children's Hospital for Lindy's first appointment here in the US... We scheduled it before we left... The Children's Hospital in Columbus has their own international adoption clinic, so we felt that might be a good start and then continue her care with our pediatrician here. We aren't exactly looking forward to this appointment, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do!

HOME

We made it home!!! We were so fortunate to have a bassinet on the plane from Ethiopia to the states... that made the long leg of the journey much more enjoyable. With the bassinet, came more leg room for us all! Evelyn slept for nearly seven hours and Lindy did great with her own bed! Dan and I struggled to get much sleep but having the girls sleep was terrific.

How wonderful it was to be welcomed by family... We were able to meet family at the Dulles airport, which was so fun! Evelyn was so happy to be able to see her Uncle Davey, Aunt Debbie and Madison and Emma! We were able to sit with them for about an hour and a half or so and just relax... We had made it through customs and immigration, Lindy's visa was processed without any complication! It was good to have her in the US! The plane ride from Dulles to Columbus was a breeze!! I barely had time to finish the drink they gave me before they were taking it back for landing!

When we got home, we were so surprised to see how much work had been done at home!! Our amazing group of friends worked on our yard, by pulling weeds, planting annuals, spreading mulch, edging flower beds... it was unbelievable!!! I can remember when we left, I had said to Dan that there were so many weeds and he was saying that this will have to be the year that yard work just won't be able to be a priority! What an amazing gift from our friends! My anxiety is gone when I look out the window and see the beautiful flower beds and no weeds!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was such a great gift!!! Seriously, so wonderful!

And then, walking in to our house that was cleaned by my mom and my sister's mother-in-law, Joan!! I don't think it has ever been so clean! Vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the upholstery, cleaning the ceiling fan blades, all the windows and window sills... cleaning out the fridge, new sheets on the beds! It was so great!!

Unfortunately about 30 minutes after arriving home, Evelyn complained that her stomach was upset... she proceeded to throw up and was feeling pretty sick... By about 4:30 pm (which was 11:30pm Africa time) we were exhausted, Evelyn was in her bed asleep by 5:00, thanks to Bebe, I gave Lindy a botttle and she was asleep by 6:00, I took a shower and was asleep by 6:30 and Dan was showered and asleep by 7:30.... I must have passed out, because I didn't hear Evelyn wake up and start throwing up again... Dan was on top of that! We changed her bed sheets and helped take care of her while she continued to throw up.. Dan slept in her room with her and I went back to sleep in my bed with Lindy. Dan was there until about 2:30-3:00 am and she seemed to have stopped with the vomiting and had fallen into a good sleep... Not 10 minutes after Dan layed down in our bed, he got up and started vomiting!! He ended up in the bathroom most of the night!!! Poor guy, he sounded miserable! Evelyn woke up at about 5:00am and said she was feeling a little bit better and was wanting to watch a movie... I went out in the living room with her and Dan was continuing in and out of the bathroom... moaning and groaning! All the while, Lindy had slept very soundly, only waking up once for a bottle! She didn't end up waking up until about 6:00am (1:00pm Africa time)!! The day has gotten better from then on... Dan started to get some color back and feeling good... by noon, he was having a small plate of food for lunch! Lindy took a morning nap from 9-10:30 and is asleep now for an afternoon nap. Evelyn is playing with Chase and Campbell across the street... what she has been dying to do for the last two weeks! I am going to lay down and get a little sleep myself...

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and prayers! We are glad to be home and can't wait to see friends and family and let everyone meet Lindy!

Random Update

Okay, so the internet connection that we paid for is going to expire in about two hours... so we will make this our last post from Africa!

We had a rough night last night... Lindy was having a fever most of the day yesterday and it got progressively worse overnight... I am pretty sure it was 103-104 degrees! She was on fire! We ended up calling the doctor on call here at the hotel at about 2am... he was able to get us tylenol suppositories to help with the fever... nothing that we were doing was helping... I think the combination of the ibuprofen we gave her and the tylenol suppository finally got it down to about 101 degrees... the doctor recommended that she be tested for malaria in the morning... well, as soon as I googled malaria symptoms in children, we were very nervous! We had a nurse come to the room and look at Lindy first thing this morning, she took her temperature (102) and advised that we take her to an urgent care type facility... So, we were able to walk about 2 1/2 blocks and were very pleasantly surprised at the clinic and the doctors! They examined her, looked at ears, throat, etc.. took temperature and weight and decided to draw some blood for possible malaria or infection... the blood draw went great! They had a laboratory on site and looked at her blood under the microscope. The good news is that there was no sign of malaria... her white blood cell count was high which indicated infection. He prescribed an antibiotic and felt that she should do fine. I had happened to already have amoxicillin for her here and he said that was what he would have prescribed anyway. So, from start to finish the whole appointment lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes and only cost about $11! Terrific!! We have found that she hates to take medicine.. in fact one of the sisters told us that they have had a difficult time giving her medicine and have had to give it intravenously! Thankfully the tylenol is a suppository, but the amoxicillin was quite the chore to get down! Oh well, we feel thankful that we were able to get the medical help and set our minds at ease that she does not have malaria!! She is doing good right now.. laughing and smiling at me and trying to type for me! :-)

Here are some pics to enjoy! We can't wait to be home! See you all soon!

oxoxoxoxox

Woo-Hoo!!!

We did it!! We have all the necessary steps completed to bring Lindy home to the U.S. of A.! This feels so great! I am having a glass of wine... relaxing... and sleeping in tomorrow! We are off to see orphaned elephants tomorrow... swim some more, enjoy a great dinner out in the evening.. and then get packing back up on Friday... and then the LONG plane ride home... Ahh, home!

Lions, Giraffes, and Rhinos (white AND black), Oh my!

And monkeys, and flamingos, and cape buffalo, and impala, and gazelles, and baboons, and zebras, and lots of birds, and another animal I'm not sure what it was called, and warthogs, and common buk and brown buk....

Okay, so the safari was A-MAZ-ING!!! So glad that we did this! Evelyn didn't get to see her wildebeest, though! We will have one more chance on Thursday, when we go to see some elephants.

It has been a long day, I will post pictures of our adventure tomorrow... we have an early appointment to get to in the morning... hopefully our last appointment we need to be able to legally bring Lindy home with us to the US!! :-)

Lindy's Birthday

We had a great day! Visited a museum, ate lunch at a great little outdoor food court, and celebrated Lindy turning one!!
By the end of the night, when she was opening the gifts, she was so tired, we could barely get a smile... she fell asleep in the ergo as we walked back to the hotel! Here a some photos of the day:

From TheNeeleys Blog

From TheNeeleys Blog

From TheNeeleys Blog

From TheNeeleys Blog

From TheNeeleys Blog

A few cute pics

From TheNeeleys Blog

From TheNeeleys Blog

And...the bidet?

It is of good construction and we have been told there is a bidet repairman available.

What I miss, in no particular order.

1. Ice, ice, ice cold anything to drink. I'm getting used to room temp water but man oh man.
2. Paper Towels. Most places have one little paper napkin per plate, some forget that, but we have a 1 year old and 4 year old; things are gonna get a little messy people!
3. High Speed Internet at the drop of a hat. I've become so accustomed to it being with me anywhere with my phone, and fast.
4. Good old tap water, I get dry mouth trying to spit after brushing my teeth for fear of swallowing something I shouldn't.
5. Clean air. It's partly due to construction near our hotel but I can taste the dirt in the air and the autos both diesel and gas burn dirty, black smoke from most tailpipes.
6. Florida orange juice. They have wonderful juices here, tropical blend, passion, pineapple, mango, and orange but it just ain't the same and Ev agrees with me.
7. My guitar. I have wanted so badly to lead our group in song through this trip but I haven't even seen one since I left and I knew Aubrey wouldn't let me use it for a checked bag. :)
8. American beer. The lighter beers here are all lagers and they tend to give me a headache. I know it seems like everyone else cracks on our beer but I happen to enjoy it...and do I need to mention COLD, ICE COLD!!!
9. Sports talk radio. This might seem weird to some, but I don't know how to explain it, 97.1 theFAN keeps me in the know.
10. Family and friends. I miss my across the street neighbors with their kids taking baths in our pool. I miss hearing about the farm and all it's problems. I miss my in-laws taking care of Evelyn. I miss my friends that I play bball with and go cycling with. I miss hanging with other couples that also appreciate American beer. I suppose I even miss Winston our dog, but our time is coming to an end here and I want to soak it all in, there won't be many times I will be on the continent of Africa.

Neeley Dan out.

Church in Kenya

Yesterday was a great, relaxing day! We were able to sleep in.... that felt wonderful. Lindy slept in until 9:30am! We took it easy for the morning and then headed to an outdoor market. The market was crowded and the vendors were pushy, but it was fun anyway!

With today being Sunday, the group thought that it would be fun to visit a church service here. Well, it was definitely memorable! At one point I did have tears welled up in my eyes as the crowd was worshipping to a familiar song...but, when people started falling over and shaking with the 'holy ghost'... it became a bit awkward! They were throwing towels that said "holy ghost" at people and I guess you were then expected to dramatically display your emotion...be it tears, or laughter, or whatever... seeings how the service was to last several more hours, we decided to leave. When we got outside, Evelyn said, "did we leave so that we didn't get hit?" Hahaha. A good memory!

We enjoyed some time in the pool this afternoon... Lindy loved splashing water in her face! And this afternoon, we have all had a good nap. We may do some sight seeing tomorrow.... the other families have to finish their medical appointments in the morning since their children are older than two... and then safari on Tuesday.

Height and Weight

Okay, I was able to convert her height and weight from kilograms and centimeters... she is 29.5 inches long and 18.7 pounds!

More Pictures

Evelyn's favorite waitress at Chez Lando Hotel Restaurant in Kigali! The staff at Chez Lando was superb! So kind and helpful!

And Lindy's funny face! Her smile just takes over her whole face!

In Kenya

We made it to Kenya yesterday afternoon (Thursday)... all went well with those travels. Our hotel here is very nice! We have carpet here, so it has been fun to see Lindy crawl!

My first impression of Nairobi was that it felt dirty... I guess the area between our hotel and the airport is not a nice part of Nairobi. The traffic is insane! Way worse here than in Kigali! We were going to try to have an Embassy appointment this afternoon, but they close early on Fridays, so we went to an open market area.... that was pretty crazy, too! Tons of people.. made me a little nervous to keep an eye on Evelyn, our bags on our shoulders, and all the while carrying Lindy in the ergo. I did buy a few cute things, though. Fun!Fun!

We had our medical appointment this morning; that went very well. Because Lindy is under 2 years old, she did not have to have a TB test done, so we were able to complete the appt. and have the results all done this morning. The doctor felt that she looked very healthy, she did a physical exam only, no blood draws! Thank goodness! We only want to have to do that once! We'll do that in the states when we are home! We had also signed a vaccination waiver affadavit so that they would not give any vaccinations here in Kenya, so we didn't have to do any of that either. (We also had our doctor write a letter stating that he was planning on examining her upon her arrival and would be giving any needed vaccinations at that time, based on need.)

I'll post a new picture in a bit... I guess we are heading to dinner right now. We are looking forward to a good relaxing weekend! we have no appointments until Wednesday! :-)

Fro-hawk

From TheNeeleys Blog

From TheNeeleys Blog