We’re Home!!
It is Sunday night, and I have yet to post anything since we left China. We’ve been so busy catching up with Colton and Abby, helping Meilyn settle in, and visiting with family that I’ve simply been to tired to write when we get finished. Soooo—here are the highlights of our last few days.

June 13th - Our flight home was VERY LONG. It started great; from Guangzhou to Tokyo, Meilyn slept and played quietly. I think we were feeling pretty good about things and gaining a false sense of confidence. In Tokyo, we took Meilyn to a playroom and tried to tire her out for the nine hour flight to Seattle; unfortunately, we failed.

Waiting for a bus to the airport at 5 a.m. is so much fun

On the flight to Seattle, Meilyn was awake and ready to play. We, on the other hand, were ready to rest. We spent most of the flight trying to find ways to quietly play with Meilyn and to get her to sleep. When I say we, I mostly mean Cortney. Though Meilyn enjoyed playing with me and would gladly let me hold her, she wants Cortney when she needs comforting. She was tired, but she was fighting sleep. I was truly impressed by her determination—I don’t believe she slept more than an hour of the flight to Seattle, and that was only when Cortney was rocking her. Other times she cried, played, and walked the aisles of the plane. By the time we reached Seattle, we were definitely ready for coffee!

In Seattle, we got off the plane only to learn how visitors to the U.S. are welcomed. We had to bring Meilyn through the non-citizen line at immigration. The line was very long and moved extremely slowly. Once we did get to the front of the line, we were sent to another window for additional waiting. We spent over an hour of our limited time between flights working our way through immigration. Finally, the wait was rewarded by the stamp that allowed Meilyn to enter the United States and officially become a U.S. citizen! (And we were one step closer to that cup of coffee!)

After two large Starbucks and a much shorter hop to Spokane, we were finally home. Mom, Colton, and Abby came to the airport to greet us, and we headed home for a rest. That evening, we forced ourselves back awake for a dinner with the parents, playtime with Meilyn, and gifts for everyone from China. We were amazed by how quickly Meilyn settled in at home. After just a few minutes of assessing the new people and place, Meilyn was playing with Colton and Abby and her grandparents. She is such a strong and brave little girl who repeatedly impresses us with her ability to adapt.

Our fist family picture with Meilyn

June 14th – Meilyn woke at 3:30 and was ready to start her day. Unfortunately, this meant that Cortney also had to wake up to keep her safe in her new home. Both Abby and Colton’s classes followed our trip to China in class, and they were all very excited to meet Meilyn. Though we were a bit nervous about taking her to a place with so many people on only her second day at home, she was behaving so happy and relaxed that we decided to give it a try. We took her to school with Abby and Colton, prepared to call off the trip at any time, but Meilyn did great. We took her into both Colton and Abby’s classrooms, and we answered students’ questions about China and the adoption. The kids had such good questions and really seemed excited to see her and learn about our experience. Later in the day, Colton and Abby gave every student in their classes a set of chopsticks to take home with them. This was a prime example of a “teachable moment” and we truly enjoyed spending time with the classes.

In the afternoon, after her nap, we took her into Spokane to get her on our insurance and stopped in at Ferris to introduce her to everyone in the office. While there, Meilyn was a crack-up. For some reason, she decided that she only wanted daddy to hold her, and she was playing the whole time. She kept smiling at me, laughing, and playing with me. If I didn’t know better, I would assume she was putting on a show for the ladies! Regardless, she charmed the whole group.

Friday, June 15th - Colton and Abby finished their school year, and I went back for my first day at work today (on the last day of school). Meilyn had a pediatrician’s appointment for her first check up. The doctor said that she appears very healthy, though he noted that her cleft is quite big. They drew blood, gave her immunizations, and generally wore her out. We were glad to have the doctor check everything out and reassure us that her ear infections are gone and her health and size are good.

Meilyn behaves like she has been in our home and part of our family since birth. It is truly unbelievable how well she has bonded and adjusted. She has started repeating what we believe is her interpretation of a Chinese word, though we don’t know what she is saying. She says it repeatedly to us with a huge smile. We all repeat it back to her, trying to see if we are saying it correctly, and we end up playing a game saying it back and forth and laughing. It sounds to me like “Aa-la.” I wish I knew what she is trying to say.

She also wrestles, goes to the cup drawer and takes out a cup when she is thirsty, uses the hand sign and says “more.” She also says, “Pin Ai,” “Mama,” and Baba,” “Hi,” and “Bye-bye!” She loves to climb the stairs and then wait for someone to hold her hand and walk back down them. She also loves to go into the office, close the French doors, then look out at us waving and saying, “Bye-bye.” Once we wave back, she says “Hi” and wants us to open the doors to let her back into the living room.

Sunday, June 17th - Today we took Meilyn to her grandparents for a Father’s Day celebration. She not only saw her grandfathers again, but she also met two of her great-grandfathers. She has taken to both Pop-Pop (Darrell) and Grandpa Roy. She lets them hold her and laughs and plays with them. Considering that she is very selective about letting anyone but Cortney and I hold her, this is quite a step. This week she will see a surgeon and an ENT doctor for further evaluation of her cleft. We will hopefully start learning about a plan of action to begin to make the needed repairs to her palate. Ideally, these surgeries would have happened already, but we have been reassured that Dr. Peterson is outstanding and will know how to proceed. It will be nice to know more about what medical procedures she will need and a general timeline. We’ll let you know more once we’ve learned from the doctors.

July 6th - Things have continued to be very busy since our last update. Meilyn has had a whole series of doctor appointments, and we have been adjusting to having a toddler again. We had forgotten how much attention they require! Meilyn continues to amaze us with how smoothly she has adjusted. She behaves like she has always been here, and she is gaining language so quickly! She is saying new words every day--today she started saying, "All gone." For those words she can't pronounce, she uses sign language.

Meilyn saying EAT	Meilyn saying MORE

Our biggest news is that Meilyn goes in for her first surgery on Monday! They will close her palate and insert tubes in her ears. She will be in the hospital for two to four days, depending on how well she is recovering. We're happy that she is getting it done, but we are nervous about putting her through such a big surgery. She will be able to eat only blended foods for two months, and she will have "no-no's" on her arms (braces that keep her arms straight so that she can't touch her mouth.) It will be a challenging two months, but she will have a closed palate when she is done.

When we went to the pediatrician, they looked in her mouth and said, "Wow, that is a big cleft!" Their pronouncement was not comforting to us, but we knew that they don't see very many clefts, so we weren't concerned. When we got to the plastic surgeon (who has worked on many clefts) she looked and said, "Wow, that is a big cleft!" Again, not very comforting. She did say that she has seen bigger, but this is a fairly wide cleft. She seemed quite confident that she can repair it, though. It has been comforting that every time we mention our surgeon's name to anyone who knows her, they say that she is a "miracle worker." We'll be hoping that she is in top form on Monday.

At Meilyn's first doctor appointment, we asked them to test her for Giardia (a fairly contagious intestinal bug that many children from her orphanage have had.) After two attempts to get them to test for it, they called to let us know that she did test positive for Giardia, but they were not going to treat it. Cortney explained to the nurse that Giardia is quite contagious and often gets the attention of the health department. She notified them that they should probably treat it if they prefer not to be responsible for an outbreak. After some calls with the doctor, they decided to take Cortney's advice. As Cortney predicted, we received a call from the County Health District today, and they were quite glad that Cortney pressed for treatment. It seems that most doctors in the U.S. are not well informed about Giardia--we once again were thankful for the information provided by our Yahoo group!

Otherwise, Meilyn continues to be very playful and very brave. She absolutely loves the pool, so we have been taking her swimming with us every chance we get. She does not, however, like grass or trees. She refuses to walk on the grass, and she points accusingly at every tree we pass. I suppose trees and grass were not a big part of her room at the orphanage. Meilyn also has a place for everything. When she finishes eating, she often puts the dirty plate or cup back in the drawer with the clean cups. When we undress her for a bath, she likes to place her clothes in my dresser drawer. On the other hand, she quite enjoys opening the kitchen cabinet to take out the Tupperware and throw it down the stairs or out the back door. I'm beginning to think about breaking out the cabinet locks again!

Enjoying the Pool	4th of July Swim

All in all, Meilyn is a happy and wonderful little girl. Colton and Abby are super with her, and she adores them. Our prayers now are for her surgery to go well and for her to return to her normal self as soon as possible. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, and I will post an update after the surgery to let everyone know how she is doing.

Abby and Meilyn the Elephant

Monday, 7/9 - Meilyn had her palate surgery this morning, and all went well. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. to prep for the surgery. Since Meilyn hadn't eaten, she was quite fussy, so we kept her happy by walking her up and down the Pediatric Surgery Center's hallway in a wagon. Shortly after 7:30, they gave her some medication, and about five minutes later Meilyn was REALLY loopy. At about 7:45, Dr. Peterson arrived, told us the plan, and they took her back to get started. It was really hard handing her over to the nurse, but after her baptism yesterday, we had to trust that she was in good hands.

She was in surgery for about four hours before Dr. Peterson came out with the good news. She said that everything went great and Meilyn is doing fine. She explained that Meilyn's palate was one of the most unique she has ever worked on, and she thought it might be a real challenge at first. The cleft was very wide, and the volar bone that runs down the middle of a person's mouth was not in the right place. She said that it ended up working to her advantage, though. There was a lot of good tissue and muscle to use to create the palate. Dr. Peterson explained that she was able to elongate the palate quite a bit (which will help give her with speech.) All in all, she said she was very happy with the end result.

We spent the afternoon sitting with Meilyn and trying to keep her asleep. Cortney has been rocking her all afternoon. She is bleeding a bit from her nose and mouth, but we're told it is quite minimal and expected, of course. Thanks to Morphine, she is sleeping most of the time. When she does wake, she pulls at the cords attached to her and tries to put her hands in her mouth, so Cortney is getting a workout rocking her and managing her when she wakes.

I need to get back to the hospital, so I'll end for now. I'll try to post again tomorrow to keep everyone up to date on her progress.

Monday, July 16 - Post-Surgery Update: After the surgery last Monday, Meilyn recovered quite well. She spent two nights in the hospital and was released on Wednesday morning. Since I didn't have time to post any pictures of Meilyn's baptism or our hospital pictures, I'll add them here.

Meilyn's Baptism	Father Jose introduces Meilyn to the parish	Pudding and Oreos the night before surgery--Mmmm
On the way to the Hospital at 5 am	Pacing in the wagon was Meilyns favorite hospital passtime	Waiting for surgery

Cortney spent two relatively sleepless nights with her, only leaving the hospital for a few hours to nap. I spent the first night at home with the kids (and preparing for a job interview on Tuesday morning). On Tuesday night, I spent the night at the hospital so that we could take shifts sleeping and caring for Meilyn.

While at the hospital, I was offered a job as principal of Sunset Elementary in Cheney Public Schools. I accepted the job while holding Meilyn and playing with her in her hospital bed. Between Meilyn's strong recovery and the exciting job offer, we felt like things couldn't go much better (a good night's sleep would definitely have topped things off nicely, but that was not to be part of the plan.)

The morning after surgery	Meilyn in the Fish Skywalk leaving the hospital

Meilyn was so excited to be home that she was almost instantly playing and behaving like herself again. Things were great until we offered her the first blended meal at home. Meilyn decided since she was home, she should be allowed to eat normal foods again. For the record, when Meilyn makes up her mind about something, her resolve is firm. She had decided that we were not going to feed her a liquid diet, and she was not going to eat anything until we saw things her way. Consequently, we have tried a wide variety of foods and drinks, and we have had many of them pushed, spit, and rejected in a variety of ways. The most creative is when she fights us until we give her a spoon full of food, then holds her mouth wide open and pushes the food back out of her mouth with her tongue until it is empty (giving us a furious glare the whole time.)

In addition to the eating challenges, we give her liquid pain medication every three hours, and she does not want to take it. It generally takes both Cortney and me to administer the medicine, and she puts up a valiant fight. At night, she is quite particular about how she goes to sleep. As a result, we have invested in a glide rocker so that Cortney can more easily rock her to sleep.

Despite these challenges, we are so happy to see her recovering well, and we are thankful every day that we have her. She is getting better daily, we are finding soft foods she likes, and her sleep is beginning to improve. Most of the time she is now her playful, charming self. Now we just have seven more weeks of soft foods, and soon we'll be able to get her started on speech therapy to help her catch up verbally.

December 29th – We’ve been saying for the past few months that we need to update our page. It has been so long that I doubt many people are checking it any longer. I guess since Meilyn’s surgery we have just been very busy settling in as a family. We continue to be amazed at how well she has melded into our family—it is like she has always been here.

Meilyn has grown into an energetic, strong willed child who loves to laugh and play. She knows what she wants, and she is very good at communicating. Anyone outside the family would have a difficult time understanding the words she uses as she mostly uses just vowels with a couple of consonant sounds (m, n, and l primarily) mixed in. She is excellent at sign language, however, and she can let anyone know what she is trying to say with a mixture of signs, words, and expressions.

Since our last post, Meilyn has experienced many firsts. She has had her first boat ride, her first American birthday, her first night of Trick-or Treating, her first Thanksgiving, her first Christmas, and a thousand other smaller, but no less important, firsts.

We notice so many interesting things about her. As she learns to speak, we realize that she still has retained her Chinese. I ran across this as I was studying the Chinese I learned prior to our trip to make sure I don’t lose it. As I would say Chinese words, she would point to the pictures. Sometimes when she is singing, we think she is using Chinese. We don’t know how long she will retain this, but we hope we can help her keep a connection to the Chinese language.

Meilyn loves being tickled or held upside down. Sometimes when you hold her, she will throw her head back and ask you to hang her upside down. She likes to twirl and roughhouse—she may be a future bungee jumper! Meilyn’s favorite activity, though, is eating. She can pack away an amazing amount of food for a child her size. She often eats her dinner, gets out of her chair, and then joins Cortney or me to see how much of our food she can get. We were told by the orphanage workers that she was quite an eater, and she has not disappointed!

Meilyn goes to preschool at the Spokane Guild School. She attends three days a week, where she gets preschool, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. She loves school and is always excited to go. She was very quiet at first, but now she talks, plays, and sings.

We had a great family Christmas. We stayed here in town and enjoyed time with grandparents and other family. Meilyn quickly learned the fun that comes with unwrapping gifts, and we then had to stop her from opening everyone else’s gifts. After opening several toys on Christmas morning, Meilyn opened a package with a very cute dress. She took one look at it, pushed it back into the box, and said, “No.” I tried to get her excited about the dress, but she repeated, “No” and put the dress back in the box again. It seems she has already decided that the gifts should all contain toys!

There is so much more to tell, but I’ll save some for later posts. For now, I’ll add some pictures and get this posting online. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Summer sunset at Popop and Nana’s	Tubing on Lake Roosevelt (Meilyn wanted to sit on the tube, too!)	In line for bumper-boats at Silverwood
Playing with rocks at Emil’s wedding on Snoqualmie Pass	Mom, Abby, & Meilyn enjoying the Japanese Gardens	Dressed for her first American birthday party
Mmmm…Birthday Cake	Doing the Wave at Abby’s soccer game	A beautiful November day at the Capitol building in Olympia
Meilyn’s first look at snow!	Our three great kids!