On the Mend

First things first ... we have received so many kind sentiments, congratulations and well wishes that we want to say how appreciative we are and thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts. We feel so very fortunate to have so many wonderful friends and such supportive family. Although, we've yet to have any takers on changing poopie diapers for us. So, if you REALLY want us to feel loved, just follow your nose on over to 1021 Forest. There's at least one opportunity per day to show how much you care.

Our 3rd and final trip to the doctor's office this morning (at least until a week from now when the regular check up occurs) ended only in a finger prick. This still produced ear-bending screams, but Darcie was quick with a lollipop in Allison's mouth to distract her. Eyes clamped shut, tears starting to flow, horror-movie scream, insert lollipop, one more scream and then "Hey, what's that sweet delicious taste??" Worse than a shot in the leg was taking it away from her to put on her snow suit.

The doctor rechecked Allison's white cell count and it is in the normal range, so there was no need to continue with the antibiotics. Her prior blood test came back positive for Flu A, and we are still waiting for the RSV test and the chest x-ray results. The reduction in symptoms may very well have been coincidental to the antibiotic, not because of it. But the net result is the same - Allison is showing signs of improvement. Frankly I think our doctor was being extra cautious not knowing what we could have brought over from China. For all she knew, we were butchering live ducks and chickens just hours before boarding the plane.

Allison is on China time and we think she is experiencing jet-lag. What gives us this impression? She is bright eyed and bushy tailed around 3 a.m. which would be 5 p.m. in China. We're starting work TODAY on changing this.

So many things that are normal to us are completely foreign to Allison and the other children from China. Our yahoo adoption group have mentioned their babies hate the car seat, pets and high chairs. Allison is tolerating the car seat (minor fussing) but we've only had her in it for 5-10 minutes at a time. She tolerates the high chair, but again we've only subjected her to it for 5-10 minutes and we remove her before any crying begins. We're trying to ease her into all of these new things as much as possible. The one thing she loved in China, taking a bath, has produced some anxiety here. In spite of having a little baby-sized inflatable tub that fits into the bathtub for her, she cries after a few minutes and tries to squirm out of it. We might try the kitchen sink tonight to see if that makes a difference. We don't want bath time to become a struggle both for physical safety and emotional security.

Steve taught Allison how to kiss her bunny rabbit (you know, the open mouth baby kiss, not an actual pucker). Upon saying, "Kiss the bunny," she'll lean over and put her mouth on the bunny's face. Last night, when she was kissing her musical caterpillar, Darcie said, "Can you give mommy a kiss?" and Allison leaned over and planted one right on Darcie's face. The absolute best feeling ever. Not only does she accept love from us, she's giving it back and showing signs of understanding (if not verbally, at least with physical direction).

Darcie's mom went back to her home in Indiana this morning. We were all very sad to see her go (while we know that Becky is also sad, we have a feeling she's looking forward to resuming her life as she knows it). Her moral support, suggestions/ideas and general help will be missed.

We are trying to catch up on mail, email, sleep, etc. so if we have been slow calling or responding to people, we apologize. Hopefully a routine will kick in sometime next week and make life in general a bit more predictable. We also hope to download some more pics from our camera and post some on the blog, so stay tuned for those.