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!! :-)