The Drinkwater Family

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2012-01-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

My dear, sweet husband is entering the last year before his decent into middle age. Therefore the girls and I decided Daddy would need a special supper (along with dessert) to celebrate.

For supper Daddy & Mommy had beef Pho soup from Daddy's favorite Vietnamese restaurant, and the girls had won ton soup. Since the girls were helping pick out the birthday cake, they decided that Daddy needed a pink, strawberry flavored cake! Which by the way, was actually pretty tasty!

Here are a few pictures of our little family celebration...

Funny Faces...

Twice the love!

And a little video of the girls singing Happy Birthday to their Daddy...

Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband and terrific father!

The best part of my day...

2012-01-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

is slipping quietly into Sylvie and Mary's bedroom to check on the girls (and give them a final kiss) before going to sleep at night. They are so peaceful and angelic in their sleep.

Yes, this is how she tucks her special "Mr. Bear" in every night and often falls asleep with him on her chest.

While Mary sleeps on her side with her hands under her head, and her "Cow" not far away.

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

We started Christmas off this year by opening the presents left by Santa, with his little helper "Elfie".

Somehow, little Elfie found the camera and had his picture taken with the gifts Santa brought, before heading back to the North Pole until next Christmas. (Side note: we decided presents from Santa will be unwrapped, simply because Mama and Daddy were much too tired the night before!). The girls miss looking for Elfie every morning, but are reassured when we tell him he will be back next December.

This is the first year the girls are starting to understand Christmas and Santa. Sylvie was excited seeing the presents and knew EXACTLY what to do. Mary on the other hand was happy each time she opened a present and was pleasantly surprised when another one was handed to her.

Some of their favorite presents were:

New hooded animal housecoats

And more dress up clothes, this time princess gear: dresses, shoes, tiaras and ear rings.

Sometimes it is the little things that fascinate them as well, like these battery operated M&M candy fans. They love blowing the air in their face and hands, and somehow have yet to figure out there is candy inside.

Later in the afternoon, we headed back over to Grandma Marjorie and Grandpa Roy's for Christmas dinner. A further surprise awaited the girls - their new little cars, thanks Uncle Jeff! The batteries were charging, so they didn't realize they move, instead they just had fun buckling themselves in and out and playing with the steering wheel.

It was a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. We are very blessed to have such loving people in our life. Merry Christmas to you and your families, from the Drinkwaters!

Christmas Eve Evening...

2012-01-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve - 2011

Sylvie 3, Mary 3

This year we spent Christmas Eve with Cory's family that lives near by, his Aunt and Uncle whom the girls lovingly call Grandma Marjorie & Grandpa Roy.

The girls love playing with both Grandma and Grandpa. They also have Grandpa wrapped around their little finger - and he more than happily obliges them in whatever games they want to play. Games like "Go to sleep, Grandpa" where they tuck him in *bed* and sing him songs, of course all the while reminding him to "Keep your legs still!", "No moving", "Close your eyes!"...I wonder where they come up with these phrases! ;)

And what is Grandpa time without a little snuggling?

Or playing golf with Grandma?

We also opened stockings on Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa, along with Uncle Jeff and Aunty Kelti who were both home to celebrate. The girls, of course were spoiled - in presents and love.

What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies. (Rudolph Giuliani)

I think this quote was written specifically with Grandma Marjorie and Grandpa Roy in mind...especially the cookie part...with a little ice cream on the side.

The best part of being woken up early...

2011-12-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

is hearing these words... for the FIRST time...

...initiated by HER - not in response to me saying "I Love You" first.

*Obviously, this video is a reenactment, but the memory will stay with me forever :)

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

A couple short videos to share with our family and friends of the girls...

Mary...

Sylvie...

Can I guess add...Christmas with children is even MORE enjoyable and magical.

Merry Christmas from the Drinkwaters!

2011-12-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

And we are a *little* late getting everything into the mail, so these will likely not reach you until New Years, oh well...enjoy! :)

What we have been up too lately...

2011-12-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have been very lacking on the blog posts lately. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to get everything done, and posting pictures seems to fall at the bottom of the list every time. But, I know how much out family (Hi, Grandma Shirley!) and friends like to check to see new pictures of the girls, so here is a quick recap of our past couple of months.

There have been many, many days playing with leaves in the yard.

Who knew leaves could be so much fun for little girls?

Although all theses leaves offered hours of entertainment for the girls, they weren't as fun at times for the big people around here. But I don't think Daddy has really much to complain about, he does get to suck most of them up with his lawn tractor after all!

As the weather turned colder, and snow started to fall - it was time for out new winter jackets and snow pants. Which they of course, also find wildly entertaining to put on INSIDE the house and try running around chasing each other.

And a quick video for the Grandmas and Grandpas of the girls in their snow suits. No idea how to change it so it is not sideways, so just turn your heads ;)

Other things that keep them entertained include building structures or stacking items out of everyday things - because apparently those colorful blocks we bought just aren't sufficient. Thank goodness for Costco.

We also took the girls bowling with friends one evening, to make it even more fun they turn out the lights and turn on the black lights. The girls love bowling and ask regularly to go back, it certainly is a fun way to spend a winter evening inside with good friends.

So there's a quick recap of our last couple of months. Since we are already into the Holiday season, I will try to make it back soon to post some more pictures.

Happy Third Birthday Mary!

2011-12-12T08:39:00.000-08:00

Our littlest princess has turned three! This means Cory and I are now parents to two 3 year olds! We feel very lucky that we made it through the second year without any of the "terrible two's" that many parents talk of, hopefully three will be even better!

When looking over the pictures from the past year, we can't believe how much Mary has grown! She has grown over 7 inches and gained more than 10 lbs. She is most definitely a little girl now, but she will always be our baby!

Second Birthday, December 2010

Mary's birthday is also a special time because I share the same birth date with her. So although we thought of having TWO birthday cakes, we decided on having cupcakes instead. Elmo and his various Sesame Street friends are still a big deal in our house, so of course they had to make an appearance.

The two birthday girls before blowing out the candles, which Mary did all on her own (she has come such a long way since her surgery, making Mama and Daddy very proud)!

What are birthdays without a few presents to unwrap? Mary is still trying to understand this whole "birthday" concept, but interestingly enough, caught on pretty quick to "MY birthday present"! Her new stroller by far has been the biggest hit, no more having to take turns with jie jie to walk her "babies" around in the one stroller we already had.

Of course we didn't finish all the cupcakes in one day, so the girls were able to practice blowing out the candles for a couple more days. And eat copious amounts of blue and red food coloring...which the body doesn't digest - just in case you wanted to know ;)

Here is a short video of our birthday girl!

As we take time to celebrate our darling daughter's third birthday, we also take a moment to think of Mary's birth family and in particular birth mother. This too, may be a bittersweet day for her...and we wish that somehow, someway, we could let her know that Mary is doing well, she is happy and healthy and loved.

Lions...Tigers...and Halloween fun!

2011-11-15T19:47:00.001-08:00

What, it's November already? Where has the time gone? Maybe it is hiding with all our daylight hours...seriously, pitch black dark at 4:50 pm is just not right. Whatever, you know you have been waiting with bated breath to see some Halloween fun had by two little girls! So without further ado...

We attended our first party on the Friday before Halloween. The party was hosted by mom and baby/toddler group we attend on Friday mornings called "Making Connections" at a local church. There is a music class for the first 1/2 hour, followed by a snack and play time for the kiddos while the Moms have coffee and listen to a local guest speaker. The girls both love our Friday morning music class and often ask if it is Friday morning when we wake them up. Luckily the party was indoors, so the girls were able to dress in a lighter costume...

Halloween Party #1 - My little Butterflies/Fairies!

Decorating cookies...

Eating Cookies...

We also carved pumpkins this year, or to be more accurate - Daddy carved the pumpkins while Mama took pictures (Yes, no pumpkin slimey guts for me!). The girls loved helping Daddy decide what shapes to make the eyes and nose.

And making funny faces at Mama...

The finished product...

Of course Halloween proper rolled around on the 31st. Since it fell on a Monday this year, the girls were at daycare during the day. Apparently they were too excited with all the build up to the big event that they didn't even nap at all! As you can imagine, we needed to have a quick supper as the girls were fading fast and tears were approaching. We bundled up the girls in their outdoor costumes...

Lions

Tigers

And they're off!

Needless to say, both girl's loved going up to our neighbors houses and ringing the door bells. I actually think they enjoyed ringing the bells more than receiving the candy. In fact, there may have been one or two squabbles over whose turn it was to press the button at each house. Oh well...at least they weren't fighting over the candy!

My favorite moment was when we visited with our elderly neighbors Bob & Sue. We see Bob and his little white dog Scooter around the neighborhood when they are out walking in the morning and afternoon, and Bob always lets the kids pet Scooter. When Sue answered the door and called Scooter to come see the girls, Sylvie, after petting the dog asked "Where's Scooter's Daddy?" Sue couldn't stop giggling with that question.

So all in all, Mary's first Halloween was a success. Both girl's have enjoyed their smarties for dessert the days following the 'big night'. Hope you all had a spooktacular time too!

One year ago today...

2011-11-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

On a clear, brisk day in Taiyuan, China our small family of three entered the Shanxi Province Foreign Adoption Registration Office...

We waited anxiously to meet our second daughter, our Mei Mei... Mary Dang Yun Dan for the very first time in person...

Hey, I think her van is here!

Mary Dan Dan, you were so beautiful, so tiny, but oh so scared.

It wouldn't be until we got to know you much better over the days, weeks and months that we learned that you only sucked her fingers when you were feeling very anxious or scared.

We spent the next few days slowly trying to win your trust and help you feel comfortable around us. We made sure there was plenty of food, cuddles and toys.

It was a slow process...(note: hands in mouth still, same clothes)

But after a few days your ever persistent Jie Jie was the first to get you to smile...

And over the next days and weeks in China, we began to see more of these!

Our first months home together saw you blossom as you continued to grow stronger and began to let your personality shine!

You have undergone three major surgeries this year, and you have handled them with more grace and determination than the adults around you...

You've opened your heart to allow...

Mama,

Daddy,

and Jie Jie in...

Your laughter and joie de vie lights up the room every time you enter...

And ever so slowly, patiently, carefully...we have come a long way as a family of four over this past year together.

This hasn't been easy for you, to suddenly leave everything, every sound, every smell, and everyone you know and hold dear. There have been some bumps in the road and your heart is still healing, but you are so very strong. Thank you for choosing to trust. Thank you for choosing to love. Thank you for choosing to allow us to love you. We love you Mary Dan Dan!

We'll miss you...

2011-10-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Our good friends the "H" family are pulling up stakes and moving back East. Insert sobbing here...

We met S & K several years ago when we took a trans-racial parenting course offered for adopted parents (along with the Rowan's). We hit it off that weekend and discovered we were both hoping to adopt from China through a local adoption agency. Many months later we discovered we were both logged in on the same date March 11, 2008. During our wait we kept in touch, going to see a movie together, having dinners, or grabbing a coffee. Cory and I decided to switch gears and entered the China Waiting Child program and welcomed home our bundle of joy, Sylvie

S, J, and Cory (July 1, 2009)...of course they can't take a

nice picture for me - you will soon sense a theme!

A, K & Joyanne (July 1, 2009), notice we are all smiling!

S & K also decided after this time to also switch their application to the Waiting Child program, and we decided to adopt a second child. We both updated our home studies and waited each month for a phone call that would change our lives. S & K's phone call came in late May for beautiful Miss V, and our referral came in July for Mary. We waited together for our LSC's from China and finally our Travel Approvals.

Late summer picnic while waiting for our LSC's & Travel Approvals (August 2010)

Finally all our paper work arrived and we were invited to travel to China to meet our daughters! Although we used different travel facilitators, we discovered to our great delight that we would both be in China together at the same time, and were in fact on the same international flights. After being logged in together years earlier, it seemed only fitting to share this moment of growing our families together as well!

Waiting during the first leg of our flight...

S & K helped keep our spirits up during our long waits in the airport.

Bumping into the H family at the Jade Factory in Beijing. The first time we get to meet

their new daughter V, and they get to meet Mary. We had been skyping

while in different provinces, but this was our first meeting in person.

After returning home this past year, we have continued our play dates for the kids, gymnastics and music class for the girlies, lunches out for the Mama's, and wing nights for the Baba's.

Ladies lunch out (January 2011)...

Celebrating St. Paddy's Day...

Bundled up for the cold during a winter/spring walk (April 2011)...

Miss V and Miss Mary checking out some fishies this past spring (May 2011)...

Hiking the Greenway (June 2011)

The three kidlets...our last evening together (October 2011)...

The Baba's...FINALLY taking a nice picture for me (October 2011)

So it is with great regret that we say good bye to our good friends and wish them well on their new adventures out East. We are thankful K has family out here in BC, so there are bound to be visits back West for them. As well the Mama's have plans of taking the families to Disneyland in a few years together! Best Wishes H family!

Don't cry V, we will see you again in Disneyland!

Camping Trip #5 - Mabel Lake...AGAIN!!!

2011-10-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am shameless... I LOVE camping at Mabel Lake. If you have read our other post Camping Trip #3, you will remember that we spent four nights in July at this lovely site with family.

Luckily however, the weather cooperated beautifully for us and we had hot (30 degree Celsius), sunny, blue sky weather each and everyday. Sigh...I miss summer and camping already!

We spent this camping trip with three other families, all of whom are also teachers (poor Cory)! While we did slip into "teacher talk" every once in awhile, we spent most of our time on the beach playing in the water and on the sand.

We scored the best camping spots in the campground, right beside the beach. This was the view we enjoyed each morning from our trailer as we had breakfast...

It was only a 30 second walk down the path from our camp spot onto the beach. So as you can imagine, that is where we spent most of our mornings and afternoons (after nap time of course). The girls loved playing with the other kids, building sand castles and getting pulled around the lake in the kayak by willing adults.

The Daddies on duty...

At times we had four kids piled into the kayak and paddling...

We also took many little walks around the campground looking for squirrels and searching for yet more interesting rocks to put into our pockets. On one of our walks we checked out the small waterfalls nearby with Mary and Sylvie's little friend "S"...

A happy Daddy...

A happy Mama...

A Happy Mei Mei...

A Happy Jie Jie...

The best part of camping? Seeing the friendships form between all the little kids...

Well...friendships and falling asleep exhausted because of all the fun you had playing outside all day long in nature!

Camping Trip #4 - Fintry Provincial Park

2011-09-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

*I have been super busy with going back to work and school start up. I had several posts written that I didn't hit publish on, so they will appear over the next couple of days.

Our fourth camping trip this year was spent with a group of families who have adopted locally. Cory and I have been very blessed to connect with some amazing families who have been a great support system as we jumped head first into parenting. Many of these families have welcomed children into their homes during these past few years and friendships have flourished between the children (and the parents) while enjoying our play dates, summer camping trips, park days, skating afternoons and winter cabin weekends away.

Last year, as few of the families got together and rented a group site at a local provincial park.

We had a great time and decided to do it again this year. In the end we had close to 60 people, with about 45 of those kids. It is a great low key camping weekend with families visiting and no set schedules of events. The kids spent their days and evenings splashing in the lake, tubing/wake boarding behind the boats, playing on the playground, hiking the local trails, roasting marshmallows, running around with glow sticks, and generally just having a great time.
(Side note: I don't have many photos of my kids without others in them, and I don't like to post those pictures unless I have permission from the parents, so photos are lacking in the cuteness factor!).

The playground where many hours were spent...

Some families went on one of the local trails to check out the Fintry Falls...

One of my favorite memories was the large group game of "kick the can" one evening. This game is similar to hide and seek, with almost all the 45 kids (toddlers to teenagers) hiding together behind tents, trailers and picnic tables.

We even had our (now) annual communal pot luck dinner of deep fried turkeys and all the side fixin's as we all gathered together to share a meal of thanksgiving! On the following day many more adoptive families joined us in the afternoon for a BBQ lunch, it was quite busy as there was close to 125 people (and several hundred wasps lured in by the smell of food!). I'm sure we must have confused many other campers about how we were all connected! The BBQ was hosted by the Adoptive Families Association of BC - thank you Diana for bringing all the food and hard work organizing the BBQ!

If you live locally and have adopted (or are currently waiting to adopt), keep your eye out for the dates for our next year's AFABC Okanagan family camping trip!

Our little Jawas....

2011-09-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

Sigh...it appears that my techie/science fiction loving husband is trying to ~~indoctrinate~~ educate our children on some of the essential classic sci-fi movies.

On the top of his list is Star Wars. In order to foster a connection he is focusing on the various short stature characters, starting with...the Jawas. For those of you who have lived under a rock since the late 70's and don't know who the Jawas are... (you can read about the Jawas HERE)

Jawas as conceived by George Lucas.

How is he doing this you might ask? Is he subjecting them to hours of movie watching with pop quizzes afterwards? Is he testing their knowledge of obscure facts about the different movies, or asking them to hum the theme song? Is he helping them to speak wookie, you might ask? No, he is much more diabolical and covert than that.

When drying off the girls at night after their bath, he asks them if they would like to be burritos (arms wrapped up) or Jawas. The girls usually ask to be jawas. I think they are a little cuter than their counterparts above, right?

"Daddy, we want to be Jawas!"

They of course find this hilarious and laugh and laugh...

Double sigh...not sure how he is going to incorporate the other characters into their vocabulary, but I am sure the Ewoks are next. George Lucas would be proud.

Better late than never!

2011-09-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have been home for ten months now, but we've been busy! I can't believe how much she has grown over such a short period of time! Her smile continues to make my heart sing with happiness...I can only hope we can give her the same measure of happiness she has brought into our lives.

Our announcement cards will be going out in the mail sometime in the next week or so depending on how my the school start up goes, so those of you in our families who actually read our blog now have had a sneak preview - watch your mail boxes!

More visiting with family...

2011-08-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

After spending our four camping days at Mabel Lake, Cory's brother and his family came to our house for a few days to continue the visit (and maybe sneak in a shower and a couple loads of laundry - remember we had no electricity or water).

Burning off energy in the back yard

Daddies hard at work..

Playing at the splash park

Checking out the snow birds on BC day, a spectacular albeit short show this year.

Luckily we had front row seats for the show. Cory's work is right down by the waterfront, so we took in the show from the roof top! No crowds, clean bathrooms and a clear view - score!

Some audience members had an even better view...

Thank you for the wonderful visit Uncle Kevin, Auntie Laura, Cara and Katie! Looking forward to seeing you all again next year!

Camping Trip #3 Mabel Lake

2011-08-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

Although our summer weather was rather delayed, we had scheduled a camping trip with Cory's brother Kevin, his wife Laura and their two little girls earlier in the year.

We decided to go to one of our favorite recreation camp sites (no running water or electricity) Cotton Wood Beach on Mabel Lake.

Afternoon view of Mabel Lake, finally the sun is out!

Our girl's were so excited to see their cousins who are similar in ages. The girl's ages are 4 (Cara), 3 (Sylvie), 2 (Mary) and 1 (Katie). Four children, four and under. But just wait, Cory's brother had a friend from university traveling out this way camping so they decided to join in on the fun. Their daughters are 5 and just about to turn one. So SIX girls, five and under. Yes, there was a lot of estrogen in the air.

The Drinkwater Grandchildren!

Katie, Cara, Sylvie & Mary!

Here are a few pictures of the memories we made over the four day camping trip. We ate too much, drank too much, played in the sun a little too much, stayed up late a little too much, missed our afternoon naps too much, giggles and laughed too much... life is good!

Making the girls into "mermaids"!

Building sand castles...

Getting dirty...

Swimming...

Our girl's don't get to see these cousins often as they live in Saskatoon, a measly 14 hour drive east...where there are NO mountains....only canola fields. Luckily for us, they drew the short straw and drove out here to visit us this summer, so I guess that means that we are on for next summer. Hopefully the mosquitoes next year won't be so plentiful or hungry in Saskatoon as we heard about (I know, what am I thinking?)!

Ten years ago today...

2011-08-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

I married the best man I know...

And we went from this...

To this...

Who knows what the next ten years will bring? Happy Anniversary to the best father and husband I know!

Vancouver Trip

2011-08-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

We don't only camp during the summer you know...we also visit family! We decided to take in a little of the big city life and hopped into the truck for a little jaunt down to Vancouver for a few days to visit Uncle Brian and Uncle Paul. First order before heading to the big city - hair cut and nail polish!

Blowing on their nails to dry them faster...

This was the girl's first time getting nails polished, and it was a big hit. While I wasn't impressed with the quality of the haircuts, the glitter hair spray and pink nail polish included with the cut made their day.

The girl's were very excited to see their uncles, as well as the kitties. Unfortunately, the kitties weren't as excited to see the girls and spent a large chunk of our time hiding in the bedroom away from prying eyes and hands. Too bad the kitties didn't realize our girl's are expert cat hunters!

Here's Tucker hiding in the closet!

And Sophie deciding to just sleep and ignore the girls...

We spent the first day fulfilling little kid dream's - riding city transportation. I am sure other kids are the same way, but ours love to point out buses when we are driving. In fact, when talking about our China trips, Sylvie's favorite memories is riding the buses! So we ended up by the end of the day taking advantage of Vancouver's vast transportation system and rode the city buses, sky train, sea bus, along with going on a few elevators and escalators. Our kids loved it, and the adults loved seeing the happiness and excitement on their faces.

That evening we were able to visit with more family, as our cousin and her husband were invited over for dinner. It was great to see them again and spend the evening reminiscing around the dinner table with a couple bottles of wine and Uncle Paul's cocktails. Thank you Uncle Paul for the delicious supper (as well as all the other meals you cooked for us and the girls!).

Uncle Paul made us breakfast every morning!

We spent the second day walking the water front and exploring all Granville Island has to offer. The girl's loved looking at all the food vendors and devoured their cookies. They also were impressed with the very ~~insistent, aggressive~~ friendly sea gulls and other birds who were quite tame, and enjoyed being feed french fries and other tidbits by fellow picnickers.

Some of the places we visited while exploring the city were China Town, the Water Front, Longsdale Quay, Granville Island, and English Bay.

The Sylvia Hotel (and Bar) on Beach Ave.

The Chinese gardens in China Town

Having our picture taken by our astrological sign - The Rat!

Quick blast from the past, last summer August 2010...

Our girl's loved the waterfront. Unfortunately summer has been slow coming

to Vancouver as well this year, so no swimming this time in the ocean :(

Thankfully there were uncles around to help "shoulder" the load of walking around downtown with toddlers!

Checking out local art on Beach Ave!

The girl's discover that although one uncle is pretty good...

Two uncles are better!

Thank you for the wonderful visit Uncle Brian and Uncle Paul. Hope to see you both again soon!

Camping Trip #2 - Whatshan Lake

2011-08-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

Sigh... my heart is happy just looking through the pictures of our camping trips so far this year. We love camping - by ourselves and with friends! Luckily there are a few more to come before fall!

Our second camping trip this year was to Whatshan Lake. Both Cory and I have been here before, but that was a few years ago before kids. It is a beautiful, clear lake surrounded by stunning tree covered mountains. The weather was a little iffy, with a smattering of sprinkles here and there of rain, but ended up with sunny breaks for most of the weekend.

We were invited to join our friends the "C" family at their leased campsite on this beautiful lake with their three children. Also along for the ride were the "A" family with five of of their six kiddos. We met both of these families a couple of years ago at a local adoptive parent's support group, and together we have welcomed nine children into our three families over that time. There was a range in ages with the kids this weekend from 5 months to 14 years old, and they all played wonderfully together - as they usually do!

A bonus for the weekend was the boat, as the kids had a wonderful time tubing and the parents even got an adult only ride around the lakes while the older teenagers babysat the younger ones. Cory and I realized that this was the first time (if we don't count hospital stays) where we were off on our own without the kiddos...must rectify that situation quickly and maybe a little more often.

No pictures of the kids tubing, but some of our girls in the little rubber boat!

Happy Mama and Daddy enjoying the outdoors!

Happy kids enjoying the outdoors, the true test being super dirty feet and hands at the end of the day. Mama just sighs and is thankful we have an outdoor shower to hose them down with.

Thank you "C" and "A" families for the wonderful weekend and your continued friendship! Can't wait to camp with you all again (and a few others) later this month!

Camping Trip #1 - Gallagher Lake

2011-07-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

We headed out for our maiden voyage of the year to Gallagher Lake. Summer has been delayed here and inconsistent with the warm temperatures. Our valley cherry crop is two weeks behind schedule and the farmers will still be harvesting some varieties in August! However, we braved the fluctuating temperatures and packed up our trailer for Mary's first camping trip. We camped along side our friends from early University days and their two sons.

Although it was chilly at night and in the morning, requiring sweaters...

By the afternoon we were all down at the beach sunning ourselves. Here are the "gingers", Daddy with friends Dale and son Liam taking care not to get sun burnt!

Mary has previously been swimming in an indoor pool, and visited several water parks, but this was her first time playing in a lake. She loved playing in the water and sand!

And of course, her bis sister loves the beach too! This is our friend Tara swinging Sylvie in the water...

I was wondering how Mary would do for her first time sleeping in the trailer, but those concerns were unfounded!

So all in all, a VERY successful first camping trip of the season and for Mary too - Thanks for joining us Krebber's family!

I know, I know... being busy isn't any excuse!

2011-07-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence in posting to the blog. My only excuse is that we have been busy trying to have lots and lots of fun!

I know many have emailed or Facebooked asking about Mary's lip. We *think* we are on the upswing now. We have had several days in a row now where the abscess on her lip is getting smaller and is not expelling pus and blood. For the last three weeks, her lip would get better for a couple of days, and then is would get worse again. Our plastic surgeon has been great about seeing us every week to monitor Mary's healing, but we were starting to get a little tired of weekly appointments. We are very happy that her body has taken care of this stitch on it's own, and avoiding the possibility of having to undergo a small day surgery to open up and clean out her abscess. So thank you for all your kind emails and messages, we just didn't know how to respond confidently before now.

Although summer time weather has been delayed and inconsistent, we have been out and about making the most of our summer vacation. Here is a quick sneak peak at some of the fun we have been having...

Going to the water park...

Our first camping trip of the year - Gallagher Lake

Although it was chilly at night and early morning, it was a great trip

So great, that the girls were tuckered out each night!

Second Camping Trip: Whatshan Lake

The true test of fun being had - dirty hands and feet at the end of the day!

A trip down to the coast to visit family...and the ocean, and Chinatown, and ride

the Sky Train, City transit buses, Sea Buses, escalators and elevators...

Where the girls learned: What's better than one Uncle?

Two Uncles!

Hope you are busy enjoying your summer as well!

Minor set back in lip healing...

2011-06-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

It seems our little Mary is unable to catch a break. Last Tuesday I noticed a slight swelling on her upper lip and what looked like a little pimple/blister. It was very small, but Mary would point to it and say "Owww". We had a routine follow up appointment at the plastic surgeons the next week, but something didn't feel right to me. Cory called the surgeon's office and they fit us in that afternoon. Cory wasn't certain anything was amiss, but I insisted that I wanted it checked out in order to catch something before it happened, rather than playing catch up once it already occurred (or as Cory would say, trying to control things I have no control over!).

Anyhow it seems we went a couple days too early because the nurse and plastic surgeon did not see anything wrong yet, and thought that what Mary was feeling was the scar tissue building below her skin which does irritate some children. Mary's "blister" continued to grow over the next couple of days until it finally burst on Saturday morning, which then was actually more comfortable for Mary as the pressure was gone. I am thankful for a good friend who is currently going through this with her daughter, as she was able to provide me some much needed reassurance and cleaning care suggestions, preventing this over protective Mama from going to the local ER in the small little town we were visiting Grandpa and Grandma for the weekend!

At our scheduled appointment today the surgeon and nurse were able to confirm that Mary does indeed have an abscessed internal stitch. For some reason the stitch did not dissolve completely and the body is now expelling it out. The surgeon did use some tweezers to help dislodge some material, which was not very much fun for poor Mary or her Mama (who really does not enjoy the sight of blood coming from her own child). The plastic surgeon and nurse were very kind to us and very gentle and sweet to Mary. I was worried about this affecting her scarring, which the surgeon said could happen, but was reminded again that Mary will most likely have revision surgery in the next year or so which will correct any effects from this.

Right now we are keeping the area clean by using peroxide and antibiotic cream several times a day. Although the area bothers her, Mary is a trooper and her sunny personality is not letting this get her down. Everyone at the surgeon's office today commented on her spunk and utter joy that she exudes.

Last Sunday...

Today, a week later...

Once again, still lovely and beautiful, but - I just wish she could catch a break.

Our girls...

2011-06-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

Warning: Serious cuteness ahead - be prepared!

And my personal favorite from the day...

Just chugging along...

2011-06-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

We are now almost 5 weeks after Mary's surgery. Mary is doing great and has been busy enjoying the sporadic spring/summer weather when it comes our way.

First time playing in the sprinkler...

Hiking with my friend Victoria...we need to pack bug spray next time!

We visited with our Speech Language Pathologist this week through our local Early Child Development Center. I really like our SLP, she is very professional and is very easy to talk about speech and language related issues. We first met our SLP when we came home with Sylvie, so we have had a working relationship with her for almost two years now. I am impressed with the rapport she has built with both of my children in such a short period of time, and both girls have enjoyed working with her. Sylvie has met all her goals of speech and language so she does not require any more service in this area, however with Mary, her cleft will require support for speech development.

Mary has met with our SLP before, the first time was about two weeks after arriving home from China to do an initial intake assessment. Our second visit was right before her first surgery in late January to determine which letter sounds she was making before having her premaxilla correctly placed and lip closed. Our third visit was this week one month after Mary's successful surgery.

At this time it seems that Mary is doing great with language, she understands questions, responds to directions, and communicates with others through words, gestures, and eye contact. Mary has easily over one hundred words in her vocabulary and is beginning to combine these into two or three word sentences. We would say that we understand what she is saying about 70% of the time, but this would be much lower for other people. While she is doing great with language development, Mary will require support in developing her speech however. Now that her lip has been attached, she needs to learn how to use the muscles to move her lip to correctly form different letter sounds. Mary is doing great with her vowels and several letter sounds and combinations, and with continual practice they are very clear. Her next goal will be to work on certain constant sounds that she was unable to say before surgery (ie, p, b. m, t,s). Our SLP modeled lots of fun ways for us to help train her lip muscles such as blowing feathers, bubbles and whistles.

A second goal for Mary will be to learn how to drink through a straw. This is a bit challenging for her since she has to learn to cup the straw tightly with her upper lip, as well she still has two small fistulas behind her gum line into her nose which make creating a vacuum seal challenging. So far Mary has been VERY determined to learn to drink through a straw like her big sister. The SLP has given us some straws with a valve in them. These special straws look like regular straws, but have a valve in the bottom, and once you suck up the liquid to the top, it holds the liquid in the straw. So far Mary has had some success sucking through the straw, but it takes her about 25 minutes to drink about 2/3 of a cup of juice. She is determined to do it however, and does not want to stop or take a break. We are always impressed with her perseverance and stamina ;)

We had kind of hoped that Mary would instinctively know how to suck on a straw after surgery, but this was not the case. We were struggling with how to explain to her to suck exactly. Another mom on an online support group for children with clefts shared that she demonstrated sucking her daughter's finger and then had her daughter do the same to her. This was a great suggestion because we could then feel when Mary was sucking on cheer her on. Right now Mary is inhaling through her nose each time she is trying to suck up, which is what is taking so long for her to drink through the straw. We'll give her more time to practice however and are confident she will figure this out.

Jammies from Grammie!

2011-06-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy at the Drinkwater house lately, with Mary's surgery, recovery time and then finally...summer weather has arrived. However, I found a few minutes today to down load all the pictures from the past month and found some cute ones. These pictures are from May, just two weeks before Mary's lip surgery.

Look who's got some new jammies for night time!

Grandma Shirley has been busy sewing up some new jammies for our little girls, and they are just too cute not to share!

I had a little grumble and giggle when going through these pictures. You see, we have a "rule" about not sitting on the book shelf on the beds. Yet, it appears Daddy was either not *aware* of this rule, or he thought it would make a good photo opportunity.

So I didn't expect to see this...

Or this... I can almost see Sylvie's smirk of satisfaction on her face!

What are you doing next Sylvie?

What? Standing on the bed, or is that jumping?!? Yet another safety "no...no".

Oh well...it should be an interesting conversation at dinner tonight when I causally *inquire* about these pictures to Daddy!

Thank you Grandma Shirley for the jammies!

We liked that you picked fabric with kitties on them for us.

Post Operative Pictures, Take Two...

2011-05-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

On our previous post, Post Operative Pictures... we showed pictures of Mary's healing from surgery day until five days after. We are now thirteen days post surgery and Mary has now had her external stitches removed this afternoon, and although she did shed a couple tears, we were very proud of her.

I know some will wonder why we would share these pictures. Firstly, to help Mary understand the journey she has been on. One day she will look back and be able to see how strong she was to undergo these procedures to help give her a better opportunity for speech and language development. I was reading online about facial clefts, and there was a figure given that stated 70% of cleft affected individuals have no pictures taken before surgery. I am not sure if that figure encompasses cleft affected children today, or if it in fact refers to a survey taken of now adult age cleft individuals. We strongly feel Mary was beautiful before her surgeries, all anyone had to do was to be around her and they soon realized she lit up the room with her presence. These pictures will help document for her the stages of healing and recovery she has gone through, there is nothing for her to feel ashamed about.

Secondly, when we decided to adopt a child with a cleft, we began doing our research in earnest. We joined an online yahoo group for families who have adopted a child with a cleft. There are many unique features and challenges that our children share with regards to surgery options and language development as their cleft most often was not corrected early in life. From this group we have received fantastic support, and benefited from the knowledge and advice other families have generously shared regarding their child's journey to correct their clefts. We feel it is important to also reciprocate and help other families as well. One of the ways we were able to help prepare Mary for surgery was by showing her pictures of what her lip would look like. We hope other families will be able to do the same.

*Please disregard the quality of some of the photos, this has made me realize we desperately need a new camera, and perhaps some lessons on how to use it and edit the pictures we take ;)

Five days after surgery...

Six days after surgery...

Seven days after surgery...

Eight days after surgery...

Nine Days after surgery...

Ten Days after surgery...

Eleven days after surgery...

Twelve days after surgery...

Thirteen days after surgery (external stitches were removed this afternoon)...

As you can see, the spunk is back in her step!

Recap of our hospital days...

2011-05-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

Surgery Day: Wednesday....
We were up bright and early to make it to the hospital by 6:30am. Luckily Grandpa Cliff and Grandma Diane came the night before, so they got to sleep in until Sylvie woke up later that morning. Mary was allowed one cup of clear fluids up until 7:30am, which included apple juice. We registered at the hospital and were in the surgery waiting room by 7:00.

This time around we put the Emla numbing cream on both of Mary's hands before leaving the house (to make the IV insertion less painful), as last time the nursing staff forgot until just before her surgery. We meet briefly with the operating nurse who went over Mary's particulars and then we changed Mary into some unflattering yellow pj's and went into a new waiting room. The anesthesiologist, two plastic surgeons and operating room nurses meet us in the waiting room and discussed their plan for the morning surgery. The anesthesiologist was the same one who was present at her first surgery, and he gave permission for Mama to take Mary to the operating room and stay under she was under. Mary was a bit more apprehensive going into the operating room this time around but did not cry. Mama sang to her and rubbed her tummy while the IV was inserted. Mary did not enjoy having the mask placed over her face, but overall cooperated with the nurses. She was under quickly and I gave her a quick kiss good bye before leaving the operating room.

Cory and I then went to grab a quick breakfast at the hospital, as the surgery was scheduled to take about one and half to two hours. Afterwards we spent time pacing in the waiting room until the plastic surgeons were finished. Dr. V came out to talk with us and told us everything went really well. We asked when we would know that the surgery was successful in staying together and he said at one week we could be reassured. (It is very rare for the lip surgery to dehiss, but we were not taking any chances this time). Mary was in recovery, and we were told to wait upstairs in the Peds ward for her to be transferred.

Luckily we were able to wait in Mary's room for her. There was another patient but thankfully they were being released shortly. We were able to get all Mary's toys set up and movies ready before she arrived. We were also allowed to have a bed this time around instead of a crib, but needed to sign a waiver form to sign as Mary is not yet three years old.

Mary was rolled into her room just after 11:30 in a rolling crib. She was lying on her side an had tears in her eyes but was not screaming and hollering like last time. The nurse told me she was asking for Mama as they were wheeling her down the hall. As much as it hurt to see her in pain, I was so happy that she recognized us and wanted us to hold her. When she came out of surgery the first time in January, it was a truly awful experience for the first hour together, she did not know us, and was fighting to escape - we had the bruises to prove it. I crawled into Mary's bed and the nurse lifted her down beside me, and Mary wanted desperately to snuggle into me. We were able to keep Mary on her side, but had to make sure that her nose and mouth were not touching me, which was so hard as she wanted to snuggle. She did not want to face away from me either.

We asked about her pain management and they told us she received a morphine shot in the recovery room. We asked about a morphine drip, which is what she had the previous two surgeries and were told that was not ordered and they were only using Tylenol w/codeine now. We were surprised, but I guess that shows us to ask more specific questions next time and not to assume everything will be the same. Mary spent the afternoon dozing on and off with Mama on the bed. In the later afternoon her pain became quite bothersome to her and we asked the nurse to page the doctor. It was determined that we could also add ibuprofen as needed to help relieve her discomfort.

We remembered from our last hospital stay how much Mary liked riding around in the little race car. So Daddy went and grabbed it from the play room and we did a ~~hundred or so~~ few laps around the Peds ward. You can also see the arm restraints the OT's came to make for Mary. These were to help ensure that she did not touch her mouth or nose during the first few days.

Mary loved the car so much that we ended up keeping it in our room for the next few days. Mary did not enjoy sitting in her hospital bed, even if it was elevated into a sitting position, so this was the perfect compromise.

Mama stayed the night at the hospital with Mary. She received her next dose of Tylenol with Codeine just before 8:00 and she drifted off to sleep. The nurses needed to check her vitals every four hours, which was also combined with her IV antibiotics and pain management. Overall Mary had a good night in the hospital for her first night. Mary was on a liquid diet today. She began drinking small amounts of apple juice in the later afternoon and even tried some milk. Overall she drank about 250 ml of apple juice.

Day One: Thursday...
snugglewraps.com/

The plastic surgeon Dr. W stopped by right before Mary's nap today to have a quick look at her. He felt she looked great and was happy with everything. He let us know that the plan would be to stay in the hospital for two more nights to ensure Mary had several doses of her IV antibiotics to ensure an infection would not develop in her surgery site.

Mary spent most of the day either in her little race car or in her bed. She needs to be hooked up to an IV to administer her antibiotics. This makes walking around a bit more challenging for her as we need to follow quickly behind her as her IV tubing was not very long. Since she was drinking so well, the nurses did reduce the amount of fluid dripping into her IV which helped to reduce her puffiness. Even though Mary was down one hand, she impressed us with her tenacity to still click her safety strap herself, no IV is going to slow her down!

Another food hit for Mary today were Popsicle bites, where Daddy would break the Popsicle into little pieces and we could pop them into her mouth. So far orange seems to be her favorite flavor.

Daddy spent the night with Mary tonight. Daddy reports that Mary had a good night, but needed to be flipped over onto her back every once and awhile (poor Mary is a stomach sleeper, this side and back sleeping is hard for her). We are still putting the arm restraints on her for nap times and bed times, but are leaving them off during the day when we are beside her. Mary is doing well with not touching her mouth or nose, but often wants to rub her eyes, which are dry from surgery. So we are reminding her to ask us and we are wiping them down with a warm cloth for her.

Day Two: Friday...
Mary's appetite has returned! Cory feed her breakfast this morning which consisted of oatmeal, yogurt, and applesauce along with a container of milk. We find that it is most easiest to feed her liquid/soft foods using a catheter syringe, which has a nice long tip on it to guide around her mouth incision. The catheter syringes work best with oatmeal, soups and other pureed foods. We use the 10 ml medicine syringes to feed Mary her applesauce and yogurt.

The big excitement today was the nurse deciding to cap Mary's IV. The needle still needed to stay in her hand so they could administer the IV antibiotics, but she didn't need to be attached to the pole anymore! Mary was so happy to walk freely around her room and the playroom. This made going to the bathroom so much easier too, so Mama was very happy as well. I think the nurses were happy too since we spent most of our time in the playroom or walking the halls which drained the battery on the IV machine which required them to reset the IV machine each time we returned to our room to plug it back in. By this time we were already on our second IV machine since we killed the battery on the first one. After being released from the IV pole, this is how Mary spent most of the day in the playroom...

Big sister Sylvie was able to visit with Grandpa Cliff and Grandma Diane. I think the girl's missed each other, but Mary certainly didn't miss having to share toys!

Riding around in the wagon was a big hit!

Day Three: Saturday...
Mama stayed last night with Mary again. Unfortunately Mary did not have a great night. The Peds ward was VERY noisy last night. There were quite a few new patients being added all night long, and many were on monitors, and the alarms continued to go off ALL NIGHT LONG. Every time the alarms would go off (we could still hear them in our room from next door, Mary would wake up crying. I stopped counting the number of times she was up crying after ten...at that point I think she was so tired that anything would wake her up, including the nurses coming in to check her vitals, which she used to sleep through before. It took me ten minutes of rocking and singing to her at midnight to get her calm enough to take her Tylenol with codeine and her IV antibiotics, and she is usually a rock star with taking medicine. The real bummer was being woken up at 5:30 am to change rooms. Unfortunately they needed a private room for another patient and we were moved down the hall to a room for four patients. I was glad we tidied up the room each night before bed, but it is still a bit disorientating to try to grab everything and move it when you are still half asleep. We forgot the camera in the bedside table drawer, but luckily it was still there later in the afternoon.

When the nurses came this morning at 8:00 to give Mary her last dose of IV antibiotics they discovered that her vein in her IV had collapsed, and the meant the antibiotics could not be pushed in. Since the nursing staff needed to call the doctor anyway to request oral antibiotics, I asked for them to inquire when we were going to be discharged, since today was the plan. We found out the surgeon gave us the ok to go home as soon as we wanted and he would call in the oral antibiotic prescription to our local pharmacy. I quickly called Cory and began packing and feeding Mary her breakfast. Cory was at the hospital by 9:00 and we were back home as a family of four by 10:30. Mary was happy to be home and immediately began playing with her toys.

Even though our last night in the hospital was not fun, we can't say enough about many of the nurses who helped take care of Mary. We were lucky enough to have some of the same nurses as our last stay and they were very excited to see Mary again. However, there is nothing like being at home...

Two years ago today...

2011-05-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

On the other side of the world, in Nanning, Guangxi, we met one of the most beautiful baby girls in the world...

May 25, 2009

You were scared and unsure of us, but you didn't cry (that would not come until a week later in Beijing)

Over the next week we were able to slowly gain your trust and coax some smiles out of you...

We have had the privedge over the last two years of watching you grow and blossom into a kind, caring and sweet little girl...

It has been an honor to be your parents Sylvie, we love you more than you can ever know. You make our hearts sing...

May 25, 2011

Post Operative Pictures...

2011-05-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

One of the things we found most helpful when trying to anticipate Mary's surgery were the pictures other parents shared of their children's healing progress. We didn't know exactly what to expect to see when Mary cam out of surgery, or how the healing progress would go. So to help Mary understand one day what she went through, and to help other families that are about to undergo this process, here are the first few days after surgery for Mary's bilateral cleft lip (third surgery).

Surgery Day, just after arriving back from the recovery room and having a nap beside Mama...

One day after surgery, our little Rocky prize fighter. There were actually fingerprint bruises on the left side of her face...

Two days after surgery, swelling is going down slowly, you can see how her left side is still more swollen than the right...

Three days after surgery (finally at home!)...

Four days after surgery, this is Mary trying to say "Cheese"...

Since this is our third go around, the surgeons have told us that we can start relaxing one week after surgery. I am counting down the days until Tuesday. I think one of the hardest parts for me right now (besides the most obvious - seeing your baby in pain) is the fear. The fear that she might develop another infection, the fear that the surgery site may not hold, the fear that she might have to go through this all over again. We check her surgery site throughout the day and night so ensure everything is as it should be. When the kids got up this morning I had to ask Cory to look for me and report back, I was just too anxious to even see. Mary was in the hospital those extra couple of days to be on IV antibiotics and she is continuing with oral antibiotics at home now to prevent the development of an infection this time. Continued prayers and positive thoughts are appreciated and welcomed.

Day Two...

2011-05-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry, still no pictures today. The internet on the Ped's ward is not working - even though Cory couldn't resist slipping into the room and resetting the server. So no chance to update the blog while Mary was napping or otherwise entertained. I will try to remember to send Cory home with the camera tomorrow and see if he can upload so pictures then, otherwise you will need to wait until we are settled back at home.

Mary is doing much better today. Her appetite is back and she has been enjoying eating her applesauce, yogurt, soups and pudding. She also has developed a hankering for Popsicles and Daddy has been a sport cutting them up into little "Popsicle bites" that we can slip into her mouth. Her pain is being managed with Tylenol with Codeine, and although we needed a dose of Motrin yesterday when that was not being effective, she has been fine with just Tylenol and Codeine today. It was nice to see more and more of her personality show through as the day progressed.

She is definitely back to her two and a half year old active self, we spent a good portion of the morning and afternoon completing walking laps of the Ped's ward. Mary enjoys walking by the nursing station and calling out a loud "huuuuulllllllooooo" to all the nurses and doctors on duty. It has been hard keeping her calm and quiet, as we walk we are having to remind her no jumping down the hall. We have commandeered a ride on car toy from the playroom and Mary spent most of her waking hours in the car. She does not want to be in the bed unless it is sleeping time, so we have parked the car in front of her bed and this is where she eats her meals, plays with her toys, and watches TV.

We saw one of our plastic surgeons today and he felt everything is looking good. There is quite a bit more swelling today and her face is also puffy (maybe also due to the IV) but there are no signs of infection or the surgery site dehissing. She is still bleeding a bit through her nose, but it is less than yesterday. Mary hates feeling the blood on her face though and keeps pointing and telling us "Boogers" and asking us to wipe her nose! Gotta love two year olds!

Our surgeon has said we will continue to stay in the hospital to be monitored tonight and tomorrow night. If everything is looking good we can go home sometime on Saturday. The other plastic surgeon will be seeing us tomorrow and Saturday, and will be the one to discharge us. They are being extra cautious and want Mary to continue for the next little bit on IV antibiotics, and after we are discharged she will continue a course of oral antibiotics.

So that means Daddy is staying tonight in the hospital with Mary. Cory and I have been texting and he said she is sleeping soundly and snoring like a log. Cory is keeping himself busy with the nine seasons of MacGyver that he down loaded in preparation for his turn overnight. I was lucky enough to make it home in time to tuck Sylvie into bed and hear about her adventures of the day with Grandma and Grandpa. The big event of the day was the chance to hold a snack - eek! Apparently the local park they went to had a bunch of exhibits open to the public to learn about the environment and someone was there giving a presentation on snakes.

Anyhow, I am exhausted from these last two days and after folding some laundry I am off to bed. I think I am going to sneak in and sleep in Sylvie's room, it has been hard not seeing her these last two days. Looking forward to when we are all home together...

Day One - Sleep One

2011-05-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

Day one went well... Our munchkin is one tough little trooper I must say... Joyanne is at the hospital tonight with Mary, and I am back at the house to regroup for the morning. Surgery seemed to go as planned according to the doctors while she was in recovery. She was upstairs and back with us shortly after we talked with the surgeons and was in fairly good spirits. They had talked about several options for the surgery but the result was a fairly clean lip repair and not much in the nose area... So she only looks like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky 2, not Rocky... She has a pretty good fat lip or two, but is not nearly as 'puffy' as the last time we went through this... At any rate, she faired pretty good this afternoon/evening and even started to sport a little of her personality (read - spunk and attitude) by the end of the night... We will see what tomorrow brings :)

More to follow.... C & J & S & M

And we're off...

2011-05-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it is 08:00 and Mary and Joyanne just headed back into the operating room. We had quite the entourage this morning since we arrived at the hospital... Met with everyone so far... Admitting, Pre-op nurses, op nurses, anesthesiologist, doctor number 1, doctor number 2... The list goes on. Suffice to say, Mary is the star of the show today and she seems to be doing fairly well... A little cautious perhaps, but doing ok. I expect to see Joyanne in a few so we will have more news soon. Until then...

C & J & M (S is at home getting spoiled by grandma and grandpa :)...)

Surgery Redux....

2011-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

So, we are at the eve of surgery number three for our dear Mary. She will be heading into the operating room first thing tomorrow morning for the next crack at her lip surgery. We have met with doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists and the like and all have our munchkin's best interests at heart... So we just have to get up bright and early and head to the hospital and prepare for another bought of unknown. I have no doubt in anyone that we will come across in the upcoming days, but it will still be hard on everyone, especially Mary. Trying to make the best of what will happen is foremost in my mind, but so is the past few months that I have seen her heal and finally "recuperate" from her surgeries past... And here we go again... With that, we will try and keep everyone in the loop on how things progress. Wish us luck and we will keep your thoughts, wishes, prayers, and the like all in hand to get Mary through the next weeks. Stay tuned...

C & J & S & M

Six Months together...

2011-05-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Wow…has it really been only six months since we became a family of four?

Mary is doing so well and we are constantly amazed by our youngest daughter. She has grown like a weed and now at almost two and a half, looks like a little girl much more than a baby girl… sniff sniff! Mary has gained 8 pounds since coming home and is now starting to sprout up as well. When we look back over the past six months we are in awe of how far she has come in such a short period of time.

Cleft Surgeries

Mary had two surgeries for her cleft lip, both in late January. The first was a planned procedure to close her bilateral cleft lip and to position her protruding pre-maxilla back into her mouth. Her first surgery went well and we were amazed at the change in Mary’s face. She was a trooper after the surgery and we were released to go back home late the following day.

Unfortunately a couple of days later her lip began to open again and we returned quickly to the hospital. The surgeons tried to reattach her lip and discovered she had an infection in her surgery site, as well there were complications removing her breathing tube after surgery. After a late night flight in the air ambulance to the provincial Children’s hospital, and subsequent successful removal of her breathing tube the following afternoon we never want to experience another stay in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit again. After all this, even with the administration of antibiotics, the already present infection resulted in Mary’s lip opening up completely over the next week. This was very disheartening and we felt awful for Mary having to go through two surgeries and still not have a successful result. After a three month healing period, Mary is scheduled to have her lip re-repaired again on May 18, and we are hopeful that this will be last surgery required this year.

Communication/Language

Mary has a large single word vocabulary, we stopped counting her words after she hit about 75 words. Most of her words are nouns, so we have been focusing on adding verbs and adjectives to her repertoire, which our Speech Language Pathologist has advised to help develop Mary’s move toward 2-3 word sentences. So far she has a few 2 word sentences that she uses and she is so pleased with herself when we respond positively to her attempts.

As Mary’s lip is still separated there are many letter sounds she is unable to reproduce (ie. p, b, w), but she can clearly enunciate all the vowel sounds so we are able to understand her wants and needs most of the time.

It is funny, but as we have been encouraging Mary to use her words to express her wishes, instead of relying solely on body language/actions (believe me, if you need a charades partner you want her on your team – she is a ringer) Sylvie has gotten annoyed with Cory and I. Sylvie will get exasperated and say sternly, “Mama, Mary wants more milk” and look at us like we are complete morons who are unable to get what her younger sister is clearly demonstrating with her pointing and whining.

Food Security

By far the biggest issue we have had to help Mary with has been her anxiety around food. From the first days together on, Mary has shown us she is very concerned and preoccupied with food. Her appetite was simply insatiable, and she would eat a larger adult size portion of food at every meal as well as having snacks throughout the day.

We were unconcerned while in China, knowing the stressful transition she was undergoing and her not knowing we would provide food for her consistently. After arriving back in Canada this continued and she began to tantrum at every meal opportunity when she finished eating, wanting yet more food. Unfortunately offering her more food would not work as she would eat until her stomach was as hard as a rock, to the point of gagging but still insisting on more. To say that meal time at our home was stressful was an extreme understatement, now imagine going through this three times a day for meals and twice for snacks. In response we continued to give her large portions of food at every meal and snack time and dished up food in the kitchen instead of having it on the dining room table. We wanted Mary to know there was always enough food available, and that there would be more food at the next meal time.

It was also challenging not being unable to prepare food for meal time in front of her, as she would cry and whine throughout the preparation. We feel that Mary was unaware that food took time to prepare, where in the orphanage they would be led to the eating room and food would instantly appear to be eaten.

In the past month or two, Mary has made ENORMOUS strides in reducing her anxiety around food. Yes, she is still concerned with food and watches others carefully to ensure she has an equal or larger portion but she is less consumed by it. She still has not really developed any food preferences yet, and we know this will come with time when she is secure in knowing we will always provide for her. We were giddy with excitement a few weeks ago when she actually left some breakfast on her plate, after she left the table Cory and I took a picture just to document the occasion. It hasn’t really happened again, but this is a step in the right direction…slowly but surely.

Attachment

We feel that Mary is developing a secure foundation for attachment to both Cory and I, as well as to her sister. She turns to us to receive comfort, and continuously checks in with us when we are out with other people and their kids. She is sleeping much better at night time (it was simply awful for a month after surgery) and wakes every morning and after nap time with a smile on her face. Her eye contact is improving all the time and she will now snuggle deeply into our arms to cuddle and gaze a little longer into our eyes when we are singing to her each evening. She has a very outgoing personality and it does not take her long to warm up in new situations and she confidently jumps in.

Gross Motor

One area that Mary has been working hard on is developing her gross motor skills. Mary was extremely bow legged which our pediatrician feels it was due to a Vitamin D deficiency, and very weak in her core and leg muscles. Our weekly gymnastics program and wanting to do everything her sister does, has helped her to learn to climb up on her bed, couch and chair, go from a slow walk to finally running, developing a two foot jump and last week I saw the beginnings of her skipping down the hall way. She is still working on climbing up stairs and ladders easily, as her leg muscles are getting stronger every day.

We feel very grateful for the opportunity to love and cherish this beautiful girl. We can’t wait to see how her tenacity, confidence, kindness and yes… a little stubbornness will help her to overcome any obstacles in her path. We love you very much Mary Dang Yundan!

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Is such a bittersweet day for me. I miss my own mom terribly and wish that somehow she could see her two newest granddaughters, they would have loved being spoiled by her.

I think of my daughters and my heart is so full with happiness and love for my girls, but at the same time sadness for their birthmoms. I wish there was a way for their birthmoms know how well they are both doing and to see how amazing and strong both girls are. Today we will take time to recognize and remember both Sylvie's and Mary's birthmothers.

Easter Fun

2011-04-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

The girls had a wonderful time with all the Easter celebrations. The girls had many opportunities to search for eggs over the past two weeks.

Early Practice Session at Grandpa Cliff and Grandma Diane's before Easter weekend...

Grandpa sure makes it hard (and prickly) to find these eggs!

On Good Friday we went to a local Easter Egg hunt. The weather was beautiful and families came out in droves from our community as well as towns close by. In past years the highest attendance was 650 kids, this time there were close to 1000 children. It was a little bit too busy for us, so we might rethink attending next year.

Keeping busy playing in the dirt while waiting for the egg hunt to start...

Ready...Set....

...Go!

By far, this was the most enjoyable time for each girl...

Daddy's arms were getting sore by the end.

Seasoned Pro's this past weekend at their Grandpa Roy and Grandma Marjorie's...

Hope you enjoyed your Easter weekend, we certainly did!

ACTION NEEDED: Please help bring these kids home from Ghana

2011-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

This post was taken from the Rowan Family. I know the adoptive mom Jessie in this story personally, and am hoping that with some attention that this situation can be remedied quickly. ~Joyanne

ACTION NEEDED:

Please help bring these kids home from Ghana!!

Folks – this is a friend of ours who has been waiting SINCE THE IMAGINNE ADOPTION BANKRUPTCY to bring home her kids. She is so desperate, she has finally decided to go public and she REALLY needs our help.

PLEASE WRITE A LETTER!!!

PLEASE REPOST THIS ON YOUR BLOGS!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

_______________________________________________

Calling all adoptive parents HELP THIS FAMILY BRING THEIR KIDS HOME FROM GHANA

April 19, 2011, Kelowna, BC: After 7 months living in Ghana, and 8 requests for additional information from the Canadian High Commission in Accra, the Soroka family’s only hope is that the two sides of their family will be united soon.

Jessica and Gregory Soroka were one of the unfortunate families caught by the Imagine Adoption agency bankruptcy. When the agency went bankrupt in July 2009, the Sorokas already had been matched with a referral of two young children from Ghana: Thelma and Gabriel. Jessica and Gregory learned that their adoption couldn’t be completed by the agency, and they were devastated. Meanwhile, the Ghanaian orphanage where the children resided shut down, and the children were sent back to their biological parents.

The Sorokas decided that the children were too special to forget, so they signed on with Life’s Vision International, a US agency, to facilitate the adoption. In January 2010, their files arrived in Ghana. Thelma and Gabriel had been re-relinquished by their biological parents by this time, and were living in a foster home. The Department of Social Welfare one again matched Jessica and Gregory to Thelma and Gabriel. Jessica left her husband and then four year old son Tamire in Canada, and flew to Ghana to start a three month fostering period.

On April 26, 2010 in Accra, the children were placed in Jessica’s care by the Department of Social Welfare, and on July 6, 2010, the Ghanaian court awarded the Sorokas a full adoption order for Thelma and Gabriel. Jessica spoke with her son in Canada over the phone, promising to return with the three and five year old Ghanaian children as soon as the Canadian High Commission allowed.

Little did Jessica realize that she would live for seven months in Ghana, apart from her Canadian family. Her son Tamire, born in Ethiopia and experiencing loss for the second time in his life, grieved for his mother’s return the whole time. Jessica developed a strong relationship with her new Ghanaian children, but, after seven months, the Sorokas could no longer afford to live on two continents. So now Jessica, Gregory and Tamire are waiting in Canada for the High Commission in Accra to allow their Ghanaian family members to come home. Thelma and Gabriel are being cared for by a nanny in Accra; they wonder if they will ever see their new mother again.

Why is this family waiting and torn apart?

THE HIGH COMMISSION IN ACCRA IS PURPOSEFULLY STALLING THE PERMANENT RESIDENT VISAS FOR THELMA AND GABRIEL SOROKA.

HC Accra has asked for additional information on 8 occasions over the course of eight months. Some of this information is irrelevant to the legality of the adoption. Each time, the requests have been fulfilled, only to be followed with additional requests.
HC Accra asked Jessica to appear for an interview in Accra on 5 day’s notice, shortly after she had returned to Canada after seven months in Ghana. They declined to interview her until that request, although she had visited HC Accra 6 times.
Both the Department of Social Welfare and the Ghanaian courts have met with HC Accra attesting to the legitimacy and legality of the Soroka adoption.
The last request for additional information was for the original copy of a document that HC Accra has held a copy of for months. This document does not relate to the legality of their adoption and was not used in any way for their adoption.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS FAMILY’S UNIFICATION BY WRITING A LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE. If you can write a physical letter, it will be counted by the government and taken much more seriously than an email. IF you can’t print and mail a letter, please do email. Since we are in the middle of an election, please take care to send your letters in a timely fashion.

Most important, in order:
Neil Yeates, Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Jean Edmonds Building, South Tower, 20th Floor
365 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1
Telephone:613-954-3501 Fax:613-954-3509
Email: neil.yeates@cic.gc.ca

Claudette Deschênes — Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations
Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration
Phone: 613-954-5335 FAX: 613-957-8887 Email Claudette.deschenes@cic.gc.ca

Rt. Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900 Alternate Fax: 403-253-8203
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca

The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism
Phone: 613-954-1064 E-mail: Minister@cic.gc.ca Fax: 403-225-3504
1168 137 Ave SE, Calgary, AB, T2J 6T6 P. 403-225-3480 F. 403-225-3504
325 East Block, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 P. 613-992-2235 F. 613-992-1920

Your Own MP
Find out who they are here:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/compilations/houseofcommons/memberbypostalcode.aspx?menu=hoc
THANK YOU!!!!

Mary's next surgery date...May 18th

2011-04-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

We have been waiting...and waiting...and waiting... to hear when Mary's next surgery date would be. Her surgeons have given the go ahead to try to repair her cleft lip again, everything has healed nicely from the last surgeries. Today the hospital FINALLY called to inform us of her next surgery date - May 18th.

While we are not looking forward to another surgery per se (ie. pain for Mary, sleepless nights due to nightmares from the anesthetic and trauma, sleeping away from home in the hospital) we want to help Mary speak clearer (there are several consonants she can not say until her lip is attached together: p, b. ) and drink using sippy cup or straw.

We also want to help Mary build her self confidence when out in public. When we are at home we usually don't have her wear the steri strips over her lip. She needed them immediately after her surgery for about six weeks to help hold her nostrils in place to heal fully. Since everything has healed, she doesn't technically need to wear them anymore. We have found however that when we are out shopping or playing that if she is wearing the medical tape, people usually just give her a quick glance and a small smile while going about their business. If she has the tape off, people (usually adults) stare, or ask questions, and continue to stare. If I catch their eyes, they usually look away and appear to be a bit embarrassed for being caught staring.

But Mary also notices their staring, and she often will lean into me if she is in the shopping cart, or press herself into my leg is she is walking. It reminds me of when we were in China and she would do the same thing when people would come right up and look at her face and have conversations about her. I do think she is aware and it bothers her. So depending on where we are going, sometimes we put the tape on before leaving the house.

We think this lip surgery will be important in helping her build her self esteem. We love her just the way she is, but recognize that this is not the way the world works. Here are a couple of before pictures of our little princess...

The week before her surgeries...

Six weeks after her two surgeries...

Ten weeks after surgery...

Cheesey grin...

In order to prevent an infection again this time around (the suspected cause for the failed surgeries last time) Mary will be on IV antibiotics in the hospital immediately following her surgery. She will also have a longer stay, likely three days in the hospital instead of just over night like last time. We are happy to know that she will be on IV antibiotics but not looking forward to the extended hospital stay, as hospitals aren't necessarily the best place for toddlers to recover from surgery (ie. sleepless noisy nights, unfamiliar surroundings, disruption to routine). However, it is what the surgeons feel is best, so hopefully the time goes by quickly for Mary.

Cinderella, Cinderella!

2011-03-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this song from your childhood?

I find myself humming this song during the day when I am cleaning up after the little kiddos. No, I am not referring to myself as a Cinderella figure - but rather my two little munchkins. See, I have found the best way to entertain my kids - let them clean the house.

Seriously.

No, I'm not kidding.

They think this is the bomb and cheer when I let them help. They also try to knock the other one down rushing to the bedroom to help put away laundry when I'm folding it (apparently it is a big deal to be "the one" to put away the socks, I guess they have yet to realize there are MANY pairs of socks to go in the drawer). Yes, we are working on toning down the enthusiasm just a little to prevent injury, but also recognize this gig will probably not last long so we are milking it for all it's worth.

My girls love to help, especially when they think it is a job that only big people can do or involves an appliance. Like a vacuum cleaner, the snow shovel, or the sticky roller lint remover. They usually sing (which means they really just yell) the clean up song at the top of their lungs.

We have three cats, so there is always hair on the couches. We vacuum the couches once or twice a week, but they love to help out on the other days by using the sticky lint rollers. I usually ask them who can get the most hair and Sylvie races to the challenge. Mary doesn't quite understand the challenge aspect yet, but happily wants to do whatever her big sister is doing.

Most of the time I don't even have to ask them to clean up, they act it out spontaneously in their play. When they are in the bath tub, I can almost guarantee that some of the time spent (after playing with toys and bottles) involves them wiping down the tile walls of the shower. I think part of it is to see who can reach further and "clean higher" than the other.

What we've been up to lately....

2011-03-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy past couple of weeks. Here are some of the highlights of how we've been spending our time. Enjoy!

Playing together nicely ~~most of the time.~~

Hmmm....I wonder if this bead can fit in my ear - it can!

I wonder if Mama will freak out again if I throw the

beads on the floor? Insert ~~evil~~ adorable grin and giggle.

Good thing I'm cute and she loves me!

Celebrating birthdays with friends....

Birthday Party #1 - Robbie's Two!

Playing with friends at Robbie's party.

Ride on toys are a big hit.

Birthday Party #2 - Nikki (mom to our friends Sugar and Spice)

We went out for dinner and the kids were GREAT! Here's a
cute video of the little ones while the parents settled the bill.

Celebrating St. Paddy's day with friends. We met our friends Karla,
Shea, and their daughter Victoria for lunch at Kelly O'Bryan's
What do you mean Pacho's aren't typical Irish food?

Karla brought stickers for the kids and shamrock headbands.
Did I mention how much she rocks?!
Leprechaun #1

Leprechaun #2

Leprechaun's #3 & #4 - Daddy and Shea

We are enjoying being outdoors again and it not being dark right
after dinner. Going for daily walks around the neighborhood....

Discovering our backyard toys again.

Our baby girl is THREE today!

2011-03-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Wow, I never really believed other parents when they would mention how fast the time will go. While it is true that the days can seem endless sometimes (ok, many times!) the weeks and months tend to fly by.

Today our baby girl is three. Which means she is not our "baby" girl anymore, she is our "little" girl now, and what a beautiful little girl she is growing to be - on the inside and outside. She is a beloved daughter, an amazing Jie Jie. Her patience is extraordinary and her easy going personality and giggle are infectious.

I took this picture first thing this morning,

I think her smile makes her glow.

What would a birthday be without a few presents? Her favorite, by far is this baby El*mo which sings and giggles. She was SO excited opening this present, El*Mo is her favorite character right now, and she asks everyday if she can watch El*mo's World on TV. And since we have been spending quite a bit of time indoors with Mary's surgery and healing, I have to admit we have seen quite a few episodes - hey, it's educational...right?!

I thought I would take a little trip down memory lane to see how our little girl has grown...

Second birthday - home with us

First birthday in China

As always, we take time to reflect and think of Sylvie's first mother and father and hope that somehow... someway...someday... they know how loved and cherished the daughter we share is.

FINALLY!

2011-02-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

Can you guess what Mama and Mary are excited about?

Pig tails - FINALLY!

Yes, I know they are small...

(and look like antennae, according to Daddy)

But she is so excited to have me do her hair like her Jie Jie Sylvie. Actually, I think she is just excited that I take as long of time to do her hair now as I do on Sylvie's. She is still very focused on everything being "equal".

After putting in the elastics, she asks to look in the mirror,

fingers her ponies, and says "Pretty". I agree!

Playing together...

2011-02-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just need to stop and take a moment to realize just how awesome both of my girls are. Having two 2 year olds can at times be pretty overwhelming, but also so rewarding. They are now able to play nicely with each other and can usually do so for 30 minute periods with only minor referring required.

This morning they ~~pulled out~~ dumped all the mega blocks over the floor and started building. I think it is interesting the novelty some of our old toys have for Sylvie now. She had no interest in playing with the mega blocks before (or the wooden stacking blocks either), but now that Mary likes then - watch out, Sylvie's in there like a dirty shirt!

It's still pretty cold outside (mostly due to the wind), but no fun sitting in the house all day long. So we bundle up and take little walks around the neighborhood. Sylvie insists on holding Mary's hand when we are out walking, and is trying to teach Mary to call out "Car Coming". She is also showing her Mei Mei where all the friendly neighborhood cats and dogs are to pet.

We have to keep reminding Sylvie that Mary can't do everything she can, like running for example. Mary is getting close to being able to run and jump up and down on two feet, but it can't come fast enough for her Jie Jie.

As you can see in the pictures Mary is back to her normal activities, but sleep is still an issue we are working on. She is still wakening several times a night crying, as well as during nap time. While she is easily consoled and lulled back into sleep, it is very exhausting for her and us parents. Poor Mary has circles under her eyes some days from the lack of consistent deep sleep.

We saw the plastic surgeon again on Tuesday, and he said everything is healing nicely and to come back and see him again in two weeks. Mary can use her cleft bottle again, she can eat anything she would like (not just soft foods), and we can start brushing her teeth - yey! They are having us use steri strips to help pull Mary's lip together, and it also provides some protection against bumping and brushing against her lip. The surgeon still thought it would be another month or two before they will reattempt to repair Mary's cleft lip.

Our first princess...

2011-02-12T19:29:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Sylvie. My first baby will soon be turning (GASP) three years old. She is definitely a little girl now, and is talking up a storm.

Some of the cute things she says lately...

"Mama/Daddy look at my eyes".

This is Sylvie's most common phrase and she says this to us when we are not paying complete attention to her when she is talking. I wonder where she might have picked this up from? The best example of this was yesterday when I was cleaning up some kitty vomit in the bathroom, and Sylvie found some more in the kitchen. She walks over to our cat Georgie and says "Georgie...look at my eyes - no more getting sick on the floor". Somehow I don't think Georgie is going to listen to her...sigh.

"Ma-mia"

Sylvie often calls me Mama and Ma-Mia. But lately, she has started to begin to say Mom and Mommy while slyly looking at my reaction as she does so. I knew this would happen eventually, especially since the children she goes to daycare with say "Mommy"...but I really will miss being Ma-mia.

"Mary, go...(open the door/get out of bed/bring me a toy)"

Maybe it is a little unfair, but I love listening and watching the girls on the video baby monitor while they are 'supposed' to be sleeping in their room. Sylvie is a really good listener and follows the expectations at bedtime/nap time. Two of the expectations are to stay in your bed, and no playing with toys in the bed. So our little rule abider follows the rules to a tee, she doesn't get out of the bed and she doesn't bring toys to the bed (we're not really that mean, she does have a large assortment of stuffy friends to hug and cuddle on her bed). However, she realized pretty quick the benefits of having a little sister and will call out to Mary to go and bring her a toy, or go open the bedroom door. Diabolical she is!

Mama...are these Daddy's panties?

We were all folding and putting away laundry one afternoon and as I was folding each article of clothing, Sylvie would tell me whose it was and what it was. So she is telling me Sylvie's shirt...Mary's pants....Mama's socks ect. Then as I am folding Cory's ahem... undergarments, Sylvie looks at me and says Daddy's panties? I pause, consider, look evilly at at Cory and answer "Yes sweetie, those are Daddy's panties".

"I smell good"

Sylvie loves to watch Mama and Daddy get ready in the morning. If we are brushing our hair, she needs the obligatory touch up on her hair too, if I am putting on my make up she needs a little blusher too. So when she sees us putting on deodorant or cologne she of course wants to try. All through the day she will hold up her arm, take a sniff and proclaim loudly "I smell good". Only slightly embarrassing when we are grocery shopping.

Update on Mary...

2011-02-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to give an update on our Mary's lip surgery failure.

Mary's lip is now split completely open, the most painful part for her was the bottom of the lip actually separating. The past three nights have made it difficult for her to sleep due to the pain - she had her first night of semi decent sleep last night, thank goodness (that meant Mama and Daddy did too).

At this point her premaxilla (the part of her lip/teeth that was protruding) is still holding, and we think it will continue to remain in place - however, only time will tell. Her cleft was a complete cleft and did go all the way into her nasal cavity. At this point it looks like her it is still slowly opening back up into her nostrils, especially on her left side (where it was the widest). We are not sure if it will open back up into her nasal cavity, as the doctors said it will all just depend, it may hold, it may not.

It is kinda hard to wait and watch, because I really just wanted some level of success from this surgery, and if it holds, she would not need to have this part corrected in the next surgery (in my mind making the next surgery a little easier on her). Plus, I know it sounds silly, but she looks so cute with nostrils (not that she wasn't gorgeous before, but you know what I mean).

We met with our plastic surgeons again yesterday afternoon. The plan now is to wait for the edges of her lip to heal and new skin to grow there. If they were to do the surgery before this happened, they explained it would be like trying to stitch together "crab meat" and the stitches would not hold. We will be going back to the plastic surgeons each week for them to continue to assess and monitor her healing. When I asked what their time line was (understanding that it is all specific to how fast the healing goes) we were told to expect it to take about 3 months before the skin heals enough for another surgery. This was a little disappointing for me, as in my mind I thought we would have to wait a few weeks, but I understand this is what is best for Mary.

I just wanted to thank everyone again for their support and messages to this post. I was so upset and disappointed last week, but have been trying to put everything into a better perspective now. We are thankful that there is no permanent damage, and that another surgery will be possible in the next few months.

Home for now....but Second Lip Surgery Failure.

2011-02-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

I wanted to start this post by thanking all the people who have helped out over the past few days. We received so many encouraging phone calls, emails, text messages which really helped during those stressful moments. We are also really grateful to our family who helped take care of Sylvie: Uncle Aaron, Aunty Lesly, Cousin Jacob, Grandma Marjorie & Grandpa Roy - you all went above and beyond, we are very lucky to have you all in our family.

Cory and Mary will released from our local hospital this morning. They packed up and drove over to grandpa Roy and grandma Marjorie's to pick up me and Sylvie. I'm sure the grandparents were a little sad to see our Silva-roo go, they really enjoyed the last three days together. Last night (Monday) when I got to the grandparent's house, Sylvie was about to have her nightly bowl of ice cream. After she finished slurping up every last drop, I asked her "What do you say to Grandma and Grandpa?" in an effort to prompt her to politely say thank you. Instead our little princess looked up and seriously replied "More ice cream please". Gotta love that kid!

During the morning however, I noticed that Mary's left lip/nostril looked like it was opening back up again. We called the plastic surgeon and were able to get in to see him and his partner surgeon this afternoon. Our worst fears were confirmed, Mary's second surgery has failed as well. At this point they are baffled why this has occurred. They took extra steps the second time to ensure the stitches would hold. It appears at this time the muscle is still stiched together, but the top layer of her lip is coming apart and open. Apparently the lip may come apart completely over the next few days/weeks.

The plan now is to wait a couple of weeks and reattempt the lip surgery again. The surgeons want to wait for the swelling to go down and see how Mary's lip looks (as well she has already been under anesthetic twice this week, so they want her to have a bit of a break from this as well). Mary is on antibiotics to prevent infection and we are washing the wound with hydrogen peroxide every day. They tell us there are no exposed nerves and that Mary is in no pain from this - which was one of my greatest fears. They also reassured us that Cory and I did not make any mistakes in after surgery care, but that unfortunately this just happened. Our one surgeon who has repaired clefts for 20 years (and goes overseas every year to help repair clefts in other countries) said he has never had a wound dehiss (not sure proper spelling), let alone twice.

So we are disappointed and sad, we feel so bad for Mary. We will see the surgeon again next week, and are encouraged to come in earlier if we feel the need. Cory did mention tonight that he could see a "positive" in all this, he told me that he was "glad this happened to us". What he meant was that *if* Mary's surgery had been preformed in China, who would have been there to take care of her when it failed? Would they even try to continue to repair it? So tonight that is what I am going to hold on to... We are here to help Mary through this and will be the best advocates for her medical care.

Twelve Hours Later...

2011-01-31T22:10:00.000-08:00

Now the plan was to hopefully get "released" to the outside world today... and that 'kinda' happened...:)

We had a discussion with the doctors this morning when they were doing their rounds and they had some concerns about the length of drive home, weather, precautionary kinda stuff... They were not convinced that Mary needed to stay any longer there (This was good...) but they were overly concerned about the 4-5 hour tour that we were going to undertake starting in the afternoon after all of the discharge paperwork was completed (This was not so good).... A compromise was reached, in that 'one' of would drive home (Can you figure out who got saddled with that AGAIN??) and two of us would get another ride on a private plane to faciliate a 'safe' trip :)... They had a transport team heading this way via Trail in the afternoon that had room for the girls... So, we are all back in K-Town :):):)

Now let me caveat that by the fact that Mary and I are in the Peds ward at KGH for the night still, but we are back home...ish... :) I left the girls to wait for the transport team at about 12:30 and got underway in the truck, and they got out of Children's to the airport about the time I was in Chiliwack... A few delays in waiting for someone to meet them in Trail to transport their passenger or some such thing - They landed in Trail about the same time I got to Merrit. While they technically arrived in Kelowna before me, we did manage to get to the hospital ahead of them and met in the peds ward... The flight paramedic was slightly surprised to see me there, but that is what happens when you have to make some stops along the way :):) NO LAWS WERE BROKEN... (At least none that will be recognized as being 'caught' doing... How's that...) That was the official story anyway... :)

So, after a bit of a wait to see a plastic surgeon, Mary was examined and officially admitted and we should be discharged from here in the morning. Joyanne is currently over at my Aunt and Uncle's cuddling up with daughter #1 and trying to get some sleep... I will pick them up in the morning after we are discharged and homeward bound we will be... (fingers crossed)... So... we are 'kinda' home :) Mary traveled so well in the plane and was content to watch some cartoons and patiently wait for her IV's to be removed. I think that was the highlight of her night - and I can't blame her - she put on a few miles with them in. She is snoring in the bed beside me, and I think I will take that cue and try and get some shuteye myself. Tune in tomorrow when hopefully this ride will finally end...

...I have a rollercoaster for sale - CHEAP! :)

C & J & S & M

Sunday Night and Monday Morning Update...

2011-01-31T09:04:00.000-08:00

Mary had a good night sleeping in the PICU at Children's Hospital. We were not allowed to stay the night with her in the PICU, and the couches in the waiting rooms were already reserved for other families. The social worker at the hospital arranged for us to stay the night at the Easter Seal House, which is located two blocks away. Although it was hard to leave Mary, she has been sleeping/napping for most of her stay here. We also knew that in the PICU she had one-to-one nursing care, which made it a bit easier.

Mary was drinking some juice and milk last nigh from her feeder bottle and was able to keep it down. She is only on Tylenol for pain relief and is doing well with that as well.

It is Monday morning and we are now waiting for the doctors to complete their rounds. We *might* get discharged directly from the PICU and drive home TODAY!!!! Since we do not have all our supplies here (that happens when you are not prepared to fly to a different city) the nurses are getting some diapers, wipes and syringes (to feed Mary soft foods) ready for us for our drive.

When Mary wakes up from her morning siesta we are going to try to feed her some yogurt. Please keep your fingers crossed that we will get to go home today. I miss Sylvie terribly, our kitties, our house and our own daily routine.

Update from BC Children's Hospital

2011-01-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

We arrived last night around 3:00 am. The medical staff at the PICU here is very knowledgeable and kind. They are taking good care of Mary. She is still sedated with the breathing tube in. They plan to remove the tube in the PICU around noon today. They will then monitor her in the PICU for several hours to make sure there is no swelling.

Mary will either be in the PICU tonight, or possibly in a different PEDS ward room. If she goes to the PEDS ward we would be able to stay with her overnight in the room. There is no where to sleep in the PICU, I spent the night from 4:00 - 7:00 on a couch. I don't know what would happen tonight if she is still in the PICU, as I don't want her to be without me.

Cory is driving up this afternoon after getting Sylvie set up to stay at Grandpa and Grandma Giles. I really need his support now, and am very grateful that Sylvie will be in good hands.

The last update from Saturday (well, Sunday now...)

2011-01-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you not keeping score on Joyanne's Facebook updates, I will try and summize the tail end of today in a nutshell... Mary and Joyanne are currently en route to Vancouver Children's Hospital via LifeFlight. They should be at YVR in about 40 minutes and then another 20 or so to Children's from there. Count on at least another 45 minutes to an hour to transfer Mary over to Children's care should put Mom and Mary there by 03:00.... I have never been so exhausted that I can recall... At any rate, I have no quams about saying that this is the best care we could have asked for... Everything that came out of this afternoon and tonight put simply was for Mary's best interests.

We did get to spend some time with her in ICU after she was finally brought up from surgery... She was still intubated, so she was not conscious, but the fantastic nursing staff got us right up to speed with what they knew and what they were doing... My hats off to that entire ward for your support... :) After the decision was made to have the correct kind of support available when Mary was extubated (ie: the pediatric teams at BC Children's) they wasted no time getting the LifeFlight in the air and up to Kelowna and a transport team delivered them to KGH. That is where time began to stand still... Now I have ZERO complaints about any of the care that was given to Mary, but stabilizing her for transport and all of the saftey precautions and plans took a great deal of time... And that is what we had to reference... Time... So wait we did with our little munchkin and wait some more. I watched them load Mary into the back of the ambulance after all was said and done, gave my love to Joyanne and off they went...

So, I find myself in front of the computer at my aunt and uncle's (who I KNOW have spoiled Sylvie rotton... That is another story for later though...) trying to rationalize this very, very long day in a blog post, which if I let it would consume me with all of the details that I am trying to recollect of the past 16 hours... To everyone who have texted, BBM'd, called, stopped, prayed, commented, visited, offered, thought of..... All of it... and any of it... Thank you for all you have brought to this experience... We could not and cannot do it without you... :) We will try and keep everyone up to date when we know more!

Now if I had my camera, I would have a fantastic picture of Sylvie and Gramma Marjie sleeping in the solarium... I'll see what I can drum up.... :)

Stay tuned for the next installment...

C & J & S & M

Surgery #2 update #2...and it just keeps getting worse....

2011-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

Still no answers...Mary *might* be transported to Vancouver tonight as the medical staff here is not agreeing on a plan. Apparently we are 75% going sometime tonight. If we go, it will be so someone can take out her breathing tube tomorrow morning as no one here wants to. We have not seen Mary yet.

Update after surgery #2

2011-01-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

Just to update... Mary went into surgery this afternoon. The surgeon found some "dead tissue" and decided to redo her lip - instead if just closing the hole. She is apparently quite swollen, so they are going to keep her overnight on the ventilator just to be safe, in case there were breathing complications they do not want to try to put a breathing tube in her mouth if she is so swollen.

Back in the hospital...

2011-01-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning and saw that Mary's lip suture was opening. We quickly packed up a bag and headed to the hospital. We dropped Sylvie off at Grandpa Roy and Grandma Marjorie's where we know she will be loved and spoiled.

After quickly seeing the ER doctor, they paged the plastic surgeon on call. We were happy to hear the plastic surgeon on call was the one who preformed Mary's surgery. We knew there was a risk for this happening as her cleft was quite wide, but are still disappointed. We feel so bad for Mary, she was just making it around the corner and now this...

We are now in the Pediatric Ward and Mary is having a much needed nap. We don't know when she will be going into surgery today,but hope it is soon as she hasn't had any food since last night, or pain meds since this morning.... We will definitely be here over night and will have to see after that.

We will keep you posted.

Day Two - What Can You Hope For?

2011-01-28T00:15:00.000-08:00

Well... I have no pictures (again) and have not a lot of story for this quick update, but let me say it very simply...

WE

ARE

HOME

:)

.
.
.
.
.

I cannot state that simple fact more simply than that... All of my girls are right now asleep in their beds... :) We are juggling pain medications and sleep patterns and whatever else they can throw at us, but WE ARE AT HOME :):):) In our own beds, with our own pillows and toys and whatever else...

I don't know that I can say to hammer that simple point home, but if the nurse asks you... "The doctor is on the phone and he says that if you REALLY want to go home he will come up and sign off..."

You Say "Get his a$$ up here!!!"...

That is the shortest form of the story that I can give you tonight, but there will definitely be more tomorrow. Thanks for all the well-wishes and thoughts and prayers for us... Nothing has gone unnoticed :)

Tune in tomorrow when Dr. Bob says...

Love from us all!

C & J & S & M

Day Two: Update #1 The Morning After..

2011-01-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

Well, we have arrived at day number two of our hospital stay and we will see how long things are meant to last. There was apparently quite an influx of children last night, so our bunking troop had to get moved to a different room - With roommates no less! What fun! (Can you detect just the hint of sarcasm there? Good for you :) ...) So, needless to say, Mary had probably the best sleep out of all of us yesterday. Joyanne was constantly awakened by the monitor alarms going off (and wee baby roommate crying) and while I did make it to our bed at home I really didn't get any good sleep either.

We had a couple of visitors stop by yesterday and
today with some presents (Thank you Tara, Candice & Kim)...

Mary's night was pretty good all things considered. She ran a bit of a fever until about 2:00am, but the wonders of Tylenol took care of that... That too it seems is not that uncommon for post surgery so the nice folks tell us.

She had "breakfast" with us this morning - Yogurt is still her friend and so is apple sauce. She was a little reluctant to open wide for the spoon however, so we opted for the syringe-feeding style to accommodate... Good success with that :)

Daddy feeding Mary some breakfast...

She finished a yogurt and an apple sauce in about an hour, which was marked progress from yesterday's clear fluid extravaganza. She is still drinking juice but can now accompany that with milk too so things are moving along nicely.. Talked to one of the doctors this morning who checked in on her and he was not as gung-ho on our one-day-in-one-day-out plan, but Mary's progress will dictate the length of our stay.

Big sister Sylvie stopped by to say "Hi" and check out Mary's new toys.

Mary is quite a bit "puffier" today (somewhat due to the I.V. fluids), and she looks like a prize fighter (she will probably have a couple black eyes). She now had her morphine drip stopped (12:20 pm) and her last dose of a anti-inflammatory med (1:00pm). She will still be on Tylenol, with the option of using some codeine if required. When she wakes up from her nap they are hoping to remove her I.V., which should make her a much happier camper and help with the puffiness.

The (Hopefully) End of Day 1

2011-01-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I have no pictures for this quiet update, but the girls are at the hospital and hopefully getting a little shut-eye. Mary has faired MUCH better than I had expected for surgery day... (Aside from a little Linda Blair-esq tendancies in recovery, but who can blame her really??...)

After all is said and done, Mary had calmed down (mostly) and was drinking apple juice from a little squeeze bottle a few times this afternoon/evening ... We put on some Elmo's World and some In The Night Garden and she seemed to keep some interest in the shows. No solids for our little machine for a while... Clear fluids are the mandate for today... We will see where Jello and such "semi-solids" fit into the healing regime tomorrow and the next day... :)

So, I will turn in this eve until tomorrow when I try to hurtle back to the hospital to relieve Joyanne (If Mary will allow it...) Until the morning... Thank you, Thank you very much... for all your well-wishes and support for our little Elvis. Tune in for the morning show :) ...

C & J & S & M ...et everyone who has helped along the way :)

Day One: Update #3

2011-01-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

Well...that was not fun. They brought Mary to the Pediatric ward at 11:40am. She was apparently quite upset in Recovery and they called ahead to let us know. UNDERSTATMENT OF THE YEAR. We could hear her coming down the hall before we could see her. We went out into the hall to meet her and I went up to hold her hand (the nurse carrying her kind of backed away, didn't realize I was her Mama). They carried her into the room and placed her on my lap in the rocking chair.

The next hour was not fun for poor little Mary or her parents. Mary was quite confused and agitated, she wanted to get down and away from everyone (can't say we blame her) and it took both Cory and I to hold her and continue to reposition her into our lap. She continued to cry, kick her legs and bat us away for the next hour, I don't think she was very happy that her arms are in restraints either. Although this only lasted an hour, this was one of the longest hours of my life - it was heartbreaking to see how upset she was.

Finally the morphine drip arrived and within the next ten minutes she was beginning to calm down and even started getting droopy eyes. We laid her down in the crib but she was not going to go with that plan. We sat her back up and propped her up with some pillows and she then drifted off into a nap.

Mary's lip is now stitched together, there is quite a bit of blood around the incisions and she is still bleeding a little bit. Her nose is squished quite flat, and we are told that this will stretch out - but that she will be having a nose revision sometime in the next 6-9-12 months. They were able to pull her premaxilla back in but there is a small hole/fistula. This may get smaller with time, or likely they will close this up when she has her nose revision. Already there is such a difference in her appearance.

Day One: Update #2

2011-01-26T11:10:00.001-08:00

Mary is out of surgery and in recovery, she will be there for probably an hour before being transferred to Pediatrics. We are told surgery went well.

We are now waiting in the Pediatric room Mary has been assigned. They will bring her here after she is done in the Recovery room.

Passing some time in the early morning

hours in the Surgery Waiting room...

Meeting with the anesthesiologist...

In the Pediatric room, Daddy is getting all our techie

needs organzied while waiting for Mary to arrive...

The crib Mary is assigned. Anyone remember her experiences

with cribs? Let's hope we get the room all to ourselves and we can

use the single bed beside us, otherwise it will be a long, LOUD night!

Day One: Update #1

2011-01-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Mary went into the operating room at 8:10am. Mama was able to go back with Mary until they put her under. I sang her "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" until she went to sleep. There was some confusion this morning and her numbing cream was not applied to her hand when we arrived. So when they came to get us it was time to go in and get the IV. Mary however didn't even flinch when they put the needle in, confirming our suspicions that she has either a high pain tolerance.

They expect surgery to take 2.5. - 3 hours, and then about an hour in recovery. We are hoping to see her around noon. We are lucky to have such great friends working at the hospital. Our friend Sue bought our coffee and breakfast this morning, and our neighbor Brent came to visit with us and keep our minds occupied.

We'll let you know how Mary did later on today...

Off to the hospital in the morning...

2011-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Our bags are packed...we're ready to go...

Mary, cute as a bug the day before surgery...

On Wednesday morning we will be getting up bright and early to take Mary to the hospital to have her cleft lip repair. We have been told Mary will need to be in the hospital overnight Wednesday, and maybe Thursday depending on how she is doing with eating, drinking and pain management. Mama will be staying with Mary overnight, and Daddy will be going back and forth between the hospital and home taking care of all the little details.

We are very grateful to my brother Aaron and Lesly for coming to stay at our house to look after Sylvie for the next couple of days. I feel better knowing Sylvie will be in her own home and sleeping in her own bed at night. She will also be very happy to be spending time with her cousin Jacob. I hear Uncle Aaron and Aunty Lesly have lots of fun activities planned like swimming and going to an indoor play place to help the kids burn off all their energy. Although I am very sad, and nervous to be away from Sylvie for a couple of days (and overnight too...eck!) I know she will be in good hands, and Daddy will be there on and off to help with any questions.

Depending on how things go in the hospital, I'm hoping Sylvie can come for a visit. I'm not sure how the girls will do being separated from each other, they have really become quite close this last month.

I think Mary is channeling her inner Elvis here...

When Sylvie comes home with Daddy from preschool on the two days a week she attends, you should hear how excited Mary gets seeing her sister walk through the door. Although they fight like sisters, they are very concerned about one another. Sylvie always reminds us to "give Mary hugs and kisses at bedtime too" as we are tucking them in at night. Whenever Sylvie bonks her head or gets an owie, Mary gets quite upset and worried about her Jie Jie and will rub her back as I'm kissing the boo boo better.

Giggling girls...

Mary has only been with us for 11 weeks...we hope we will be able to help her understand we are there for her and love her. We are also keeping our fingers crossed that we have an anesthesiologist who will allow one of us to go with Mary into the operating room until she is asleep. We made sure at our pre-surgical screening appointment to briefly explain the attachment process and Mary's history of abandonment, and our concerns about maintaining the trust she has placed in us (ie. concern about us handing her over to complete strangers, in a strange place, and then walking away). I'm not totally sure they understood, but we have to hope they did. I also worry about when she comes out of the surgery and is in recovery. We are told they will not let us be in the recovery room, but will bring us in as soon as possible.

So I will be explaining again, tomorrow morning, our concerns about attachment, and Mary's limited understanding of English so they have a understanding that this is not a typical two year old, and to respect her unique past and experiences.

Yes...I know she has socks on her hands, but she likes it!

Cory and I will be keeping everyone updated through the blog and FB during the day and evening as time permits, as it will be easier than calling and emailing all our concerned family members and friends. Please send us your positive thougts, vibes and prayers tomorrow.

Trip to the dentist...

2011-01-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

Since Mary's surgery is only a week away now, we have been very busy trying to fit in all her appointments before her lip is repaired. We wanted to have some assessments completed before her lip is corrected so we have a bese line to compare any new developments. These last two weeks alone we have seen the SLP (speech language pathologist), Pediatric Dentist, Pediatrician, Occupational Therapist, and our Infant Development Consultant (developmental assessment). So far everyone has been very impressed with Mary and how far she has come in the ten short weeks we have been together.

Today was the pediatric dentist. We are a little worried about Mary's two front teeth. Due to her cleft, they are exposed to the air constantly and the enamel is eroding. At some time in the future we will probably be determining if she will need to have these two teeth capped.

Waiting for the dentist.

Playing with my little friends while waiting for the dentist...

Ok, getting a little bored, might take a nap now!

Mary was phenomenal at the dentist. She cooperated and was calm throughout. The staff was amazed and keep complimenting her on her behavior and demeanor. They were able to take x-rays today and we were pleased to learn that although she is missing missing baby teeth due to her cleft, it appears that there are adult teeth forming in their spot. We will have to see where they eventually come in and likely orthodontic work may be required to help guide them into their proper place.

Here's a short video of our little girl patiently waiting for the dentist.

Good Friends...

2011-01-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

Good Friends...are worth their weight in gold.

Today after music class my two friends and I, along with our respective children, decided to go out for lunch at a local Indian Fusion restaurant downtown. The lunch buffet option makes a logical choice for little ones dining out (no waiting for food to be prepared, lots of choice in food options).

While we were munching away on our naan bread and butter chicken, a gentleman came over to ask if we were out "on a field trip with the daycare". Luckily my friend "Nicky" is way more polite and gracious, and explained something along the lines about lunching with our children. My first reaction most likely would have been to say 'no' and give him the death glare. I guess I have lessons in graciousness to be learned still...sigh it's been a challenging couple of months dealing with inappropriate and thoughtless comments/questions, so I'm a little quick to jump the gun.

We then convinced the gentleman to take our group picture before he left to go resume his lunch with his wife and older daughter. We could hear him remark to his wife that there were five children under 5, eating quietly and behaving wonderfully in the restaurant. It was nice to hear the kudos being given for our children's behavior.

Anyhow...as I was driving home today after lunch I was reflecting on how lucky I am to be supported by so many great friends. So to all my friends...thank you!

Two Months together...

2011-01-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

Two months ago on November 8, we were sitting on a couch in the capital city of Shanxi, Taiyuan waiting for our soon-to-be daughter to be brought to meet us. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life, time seemed to go in slow motion as we watched our daughter enter the room with her nanny. I remember leaving the government office with Mary Dan Dan in my arms, and riding the elevator up to our room. Cory looked over to me and asked how I was doing, and with my eyes brimming with tears I remember answering him "I'm scared I'm going to screw this up".

Sigh...yes...and now fast forward to two months later and luckily it seems I have managed to avoid (for most intents and purposes) not to mess up Mary too badly ;) Although I realize there are many years to come before she hits her teen years with a stride, so I guess there is always time.

As Cory and I sat back tonight after the kiddos had gone to bed we can't believe the changes we have been privileged to witness in little Mary over these past 8 weeks.

Mary now has about 15 words she says independently, of course due to her cleft her speech articulation is affected, but we are able to hear and understand what she is saying. Here are a list of the words she is saying now:

1. Mama

2. Daddy

3. Ally (our cat, and calls the other two cats this name as well)

4. Hi

5. Bye Bye

6. Go

7. All Done (as well as the sign)

8. Thank you (as well as the sign)

9. Help (as well as the sign)

10. More (as well as the sign)

11. Ball

12. Cheese (said when holding a camera, long emphasis on EEEEE sound)

13. Good Girl (she says after using the potty, because this is what we have said to her in the beginning)

14. Yey! (when she claps)

15. Signs for “Potty”

...and just these last two days Mary has been practicing the word "No!" with Sylvie, usually when toys are involved. I don't think it will take her to long to fully understand the meaning of that word - do you?

Mary is babbling constantly and repeating what we and her older sister is saying. I think that in the next couple of months the words she says independently will continue to grow by leaps and bounds.

Mary has finally learned how to climb up onto the couch. She was not bending her knees at all to try to climb up, and was content to try to just swing her leg up straight (this is also the same thing she does when going up and down stairs. So we have been showing her how to bend her knees and use them as leverage to climb up, I'm sure it won't be much longer until she is climbing up into her sister's bed (where all the 'good' toys are placed safely out of the way).

We also went for x-rays in December on Mary's legs. Her pediatrician wanted to make sure that her bowed legs weren't the result of rickets, but instead of a vitamin deficiency. So in the meantime we are giving Mary Vitamin D drops and ensuring she has a balanced diet, which is pretty easy to do when she will eat ANYTHING put in front of her.

Anyhow...here are a few pictures of some of the fun we've had these past couple of weeks. We've been busy going to gymnastics, swimming, Strong Start and music class - something for everyday of the week! I must admit we haven't had our camera out a whole bunch, I guess it is true what they say about the second child.

Our budding musician...

Grandpa Roy lets me jump on the furniture - don't tell Mama!

Arts and Crafts at Strong Start (a free program for early learners

through the School District funded by the Ministry of Education

What is this sticky stuff?

Hangin' out with Daddy and Jie Jie (big sister) in the foam pit

at the gymnastics club. I refuse to go in after getting stuck last time.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-30T16:24:00.000-08:00

Sisterly Love...

2010-12-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

It's growing...

Amidst the squabbling over toys

Slowly...but surely

It's growing...more and more everyday.

Family First: Bowling

2010-12-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

Last week we were invited to a bowling party hosted by Sylvie's daycare provider. Since Sylvie and Mary have never been bowling before we thought it would be a great way to spend the Sunday afternoon.

I wasn't sure how the girls would do, and I was convinced that they would drop the ball on their toes. Thankfully no toes were hurt in the event. Since the bowlers were all five and under, the bumpers were put up along the lanes to ensure success. There were these cool little stands for the kids to use where they put the ball at the top, give it a push, and watch it roll down the slide and toward the pins.

At first Sylvie was a little sad to see her ball roll down towards the pins...(and Daddy was hoping for a strike, or is he just practicing his Zoolander look?).

But she soon warmed up to the idea of knocking the pins down.

After watching her big sister, Mary was in there like a dirty shirt. In the beginning all she really wanted to do was pick up the balls, but Daddy convinced her it was fun to push them down the ball slide as well.

Watching the ball zoom towards the pins...

And success - a strike! Ok, not really - but fun was had by all.

It was a great afternoon. Thanks again to Yvonne for pulling off a wonderful Christmas party for all the little kids. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Our daughter is Two!!!!

2010-12-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

This week Mary turned two, and we celebrated together as a family of four. Mary and I went out to the cupcake store and selected some treats for dessert in lieu of cake. Daddy and Sylvie brought home pizza and our birthday supper essentials were complete.

Enjoying her sister's birthday dinner.

The birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles...

Enjoying the first bites of her birthday cupcake

Sylvie enjoyed her cupcake too, and wondered when it would be her birthday.

We are so thankful that we were able to celebrate Mary's birthday with her here at home together as a family! She is a beautiful, cuddly and affectionate little girl. Her giggles and chuckles crack us up every time, we hope we can continue to make her smile and laugh every day.

Second Week Home: Doctors Appointments and Refereeing

2010-12-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

So the past week we have been busy with getting into a routine and various doctor's appointments. We have been to see two plastic surgeons and met Mary's pediatrician. The next couple of weeks will continue to be busy as we try to get through all the requisition forms from the doctors. So far we need to go and get some routine blood work completed, check her immunization records with the public health nurse, have a set of x-rays of her legs, and get her hearing assessed. We are going to try to space out all these appointments over the next couple of weeks so Mary isn't overwhelmed.

The two plastic surgeons will work together to repair Mary's lip. We are now waiting for the surgeons to meet now come up with a game plan. Our surgeon today did say that he expects that we will have a surgery date sometime in January.

This week also coincided with Cory heading back to work (boo!). It has been wonderful having him home the first week back from China. When we came home last time with Sylvie, he had to head back to work two days after we got back. Thankfully we are mostly over the jet lag and are finally starting to get some good sleep at night.

So with Cory at work during the day, I have added a new task to my job description of motherhood - Referee. Yes, life with two toddlers is definitely interesting. Add one "only" child, and a second toddler with very limited English skills and you get some exciting times around here in the Drinkwater house. I'm still trying to figure out how to best handle their squabbles (and quell the occasionally biting), any suggestions are appreciated.

However, there are periods of time during the day where they do play very nicely together. Sylvie is so excited to have someone to play with at home. She is forever hiding and calling out "Baby Mary come and find Sylvie" (yes, she still talks in the third person). Mary is also very taken with her Jie Jie, she intently watches her play with every toy and copies her exact moves. We're trying to encourage Sylvie to make really positive choices since she has a little shadow, and feel lucky that Sylvie is generally pretty good most of the time.

Here's some pictures taken the other night of the girl's playing in a box - I love how toddlers can turn everyday objects into the most entertaining toys!

Home for one week...

2010-11-26T19:25:00.000-08:00

Well life at home for one week....in heading format:

Communicating:
Mary can say "Mama", "Daddy" and the beginnings of "Kitty Cat". She is working on learning the signs for "more" and "all done" and is beginning to use them when encouraged. We are impressed with her receptive language, she is already picking up routine phrases ie. "Let's go potty" (and she walks to the bathroom), "Mary come here please", "Push up your sleeves", "Take your shoes off"...ect. She babbles continuously, so we are hopeful that more words will appear soon.

Sleeping:
We are almost afraid to comment on it, for fear of jinxing everything. Although it has not been a walk in the park, we realize it could be much more challenging than it has been. We have taken the crib mattress out and placed it on the floor in the girl's room. Either Cory or I will lay down on the floor in the room until the girl's drift off to dreamland. Everyday the crying during the going to sleep time seems to decrease, especially at naptime.

Both girl's were waking up a couple of times at night each the first couple of days, most likely due to jet lag and the new environment. However, they weren't waking up at the same time, and when one little girl began crying it would then wake up the other and thus more crying. The last night or two, Mary has only stirred and cried once earlier one in the evening, and with a little back rub and reassurance she has drifted back to sleep. Fingers crossed this continues...

Cory and I both seem to be over the worst of the jet lag. We are both still napping each afternoon with the girls and setting the alarm so we don't sleep past the two hours. We are finally able to fall asleep before midnight, much better than the 2:30 am time when we would finally nodd off. We are trying our best to be on a tight sleeping schedule and have made sure we are all up and moving around by 7:30 am. We are even having to wake the girl's in the morning, a much different story for Sylvie who was the queen of getting up early on our days off!

Eating:
Most of our tantrums are surrounding food right now. Mary gets very, very upset if she sees someone else eating and she is not. Or even if she has some food still - which makes it interesting because she shovels food in as quick as she can, and Sylvie eats slow. She is still very anxious about food and having enough to eat, and as such is eating an enormous amount of food.

We are taking it slow, dishing up food on the counter and then bringing everyone's food to the table, so she can focus on what is in her bowl/plate and is not distracted by food in serving dishes. We have also taught her to use a fork or a spoon. She is doing much better using them now, and this also helps to slow her down when she is eating. She would still prefer to eat everything with her hands (as it gets into her mouth quicker), but is now using her fork or spoon when we ask. It will take time, but this will get better as her trust in us providing for her needs will grow.

Playing:
We are both impressed with how the girl's play together. Often we hear lots of giggles and laughing between the two. Mary watched Sylvie play with her toys carefully, and imitates how she plays with them. Mary has learned quite quickly how to make the different toys make noise and how to put together and take apart the Mega Blocks.

Sylvie is relearning how interesting some of her toys can be - especially now that there is another little someone who finds them interesting as well. However, this leads the occasional fight over a specific toy - and with her limited communication skills, Mary has resorted to biting at times to get her point across. We are working hard on curbing this behavior, and being thankful that her cleft makes of so she mostly gums Sylvie, rather than actually biting. Any suggestions on reducing/replacing this behavior?

Weather:
One of the hardest parts of coming home was the sudden change in weather. When we left home at the beginning of November, it was +10C. When we returned it was -4C and snowing hard. This first week home the weather dropped to -16C, and we have been shoveling the driveway several times a day. This has made venturing outside to play much less enjoyable. Luckily today, the temperature rose to a balmy -1C and we bundled up and headed outside...

Happy to be outside playing in the snow...

Not happy with the subsequent chores associated with winter...

The fun that comes along with snow...

Video of us all arriving at the airport!

2010-11-24T15:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a video our friend "Nicky" took of us arriving at the airport last Thursday evening. Thank you so much for capturing this moment for us. Please excuse how we look, we had been traveling longer than 24 hours by then and all I wanted was to get home, shower and change into some clean clothes!

Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And we are home...

2010-11-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

Seems like just yesterday we were jet-setting around the world in foreign lands... Well, it pretty much was yesterday (actually the day before, but I am still on Beijing time, so this post will happen tomorrow...) :) We have made it through two nights of sleep in our own beds in our own house with our own family and nothing but. Quite a treat considering the last two weeks have been go go go... Everyone seems to be settling in fairly well - We summarily tossed the mattress out of the crib onto the floor for the interim because of Mary's not-quite-so-good reaction to them on the trip... Figure we will deal with whatever as long as she is getting some sleep, and both the girls have been doing fairly good in that department too... Trying to readjust sleep patterns doesn't happen overnight, but they are troopers and will probably be right as rain before we are.

The trip home was overall uneventful - Air Canada tossed us a nice curve ball when we arrived at the airport in Beijing - Oh your flight will be 5 and a half hours delayed - While we are standing in line for check-in... WTF??? Oh well, I guess we will just PLAY IN THE AIRPORT for what? SEVEN or EIGHT hours now ?!?! Thanks Air Canada! You guys are great! If you will recall our AC issues from last time - At least we were sitting on the plane on the tarmac this time for two and a half hours before takeoff. Needless to say me thinks their customer service hotline will be getting an earful - See what I can wrangle out of them our 'pain and suffering' :) As an aside - if your kids are completely exhausted, they WILL sleep on the plane for like seven and change hours :) I guess that's something.

So, we will be hiding out at home for the next little while - working on a cocoon to start what seems to be winter all of a sudden... Family bonding time will be good, until we start to get cabin fever, but we will cross that line when we get there... :) Thank you to all who visited (albeit briefly) with us at the airport when we arrived - It was just the snapshot of friends and family we needed after a very long day! We will be in touch with everyone soon so don't just THINK we are dodging your calls - The ringers in the house are off and we actually ARE... :) Stay tuned - there will be definitely be more to follow.

C & J & S & M

A little chaos in Beijing - Note Mary's particularly lovely expression about the wait in line...

Just how many girls can we fit on this train??

Can still manage some smiles during our extended stay

Some entry/exit lessons on some of the cooler buggies at the airport

At home in pajamas relaxing at the dinner table... Much happier!

This one is going to be trouble - I see mischief in these eyes... :)

I already know this one is Dr. Evil...

Medicals, Silk, Pearls, Acrobats… What else is on the list?

2010-11-16T23:26:00.000-08:00

Medicals, Silk, Pearls, Acrobats… What else is on the list?

The last couple of days have been a bit of a mix. Monday was a bright and early start for those of us who chose to sponsor our children (instead of citizenship) as we have to get a medical examination done of the child to meet Canada’s visa and immigration requirements. There were four families who went this route, so we got to head to the clinic while the rest of the group got some free time. The medical was no big deal at all. Mary is a little undersized (not uncommon) and she actually made it onto the charts for all of the height, weight, and head circumference – The same could not be said for her sister when we got her if you recall, so we are not too worried… :) She is in reasonably good health, so nothing else was required – One more thing checked off the list. We got to do a bit of shopping while the remaining kidlets were getting their exams done, so we picked up some more essentials for the hotel – Pringles (Numb & Spicy Hot Pot flavour – you must try if you get the chance :) … and some “regular” ones too).

The afternoon was a tour of the Summer Palace, which we opted out of because:

a) We had seen it before so we figured family naptime would be a good idea

b) It is by a large lake and it was very windy, so colds for the way home we were trying to avoid

Family nap time was a good choice, and with us all refreshed, we headed out into taxiland to get a cab over to Shea & Karla’s hotel to try and meet them for a little dinner. We did get a nice visit in and some impromptu Chinese dinner - We were shooting for a recommended Italian place, but some of us with the directions to get there were a little… what’s the word… inept… :) No matter, the Chinese was excellent so there were no complaints. Got them back to their hotel and we caught a cab back to ours (much easier if you have the concierge tell the cab driver where you want to go by the way – as opposed to the blank stares we usually got the last time around when we handed them the little cards…) Had to make it back to meet the tailor and see what 24 hours later looked like in the suit department. He and his assistant true to their word showed up at the room a little after 9:00 and had a surprisingly almost finished suit for me to try on. He continued to tweak and pin here and there to get some button placement, cuff lengths, and muscle the shoulders and chest into something that would fit, but after he had worked his magic and the assistant wrote down some of his yammerings, they were off again and the finished product would be available the next day… Impressive considering I am not the average stature that he gets to fit every other day.

Tuesday was another long one… We headed on a silk factory tour with the group – We did not have a chance to do this last time, so we figured that it would probably be a good one to catch. It was very informative and we got a chance to pick up the girls some nice Chinese dresses afterwards, which were in fact made of pure silk, which you may or may not find at the markets. Could have gone overboard with silk pillows, comforters, you name it, but we managed to restrain ourselves. After the silk factory was the Pearl Market for some more shopping – and some good, good bartering fun :). It was the same chaos as the last time we were here, but we knew how to duck and dodge the local sales staff to keep moving to stuff we wanted to see… Some of the group was not as fortunate and were continually hounded… You want bag? How ‘bout belt? You need wallet? Rolex? Very good price… :) What fun.

The shopping tour lasted a couple of hours… We did get lunch on it though, so it wasn’t all haggling all the time. We headed back to the hotel for a little downtime and a quick bite and were back on the bus to take in a Chinese Acrobatic show… I think we spent longer on the bus in traffic than the actual show was, but it was an excellent performance and the girls enjoyed it. Sylvie was a little out of sorts because of the loud music and gonging, but she enjoyed all the rest. Mary was pretty much done by the end, but also loved to point out what was happening on stage, so she must have been intrigued as well. The bus ride home was far less time because the traffic was lighter, so we got back and into bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Today we got to sleep in… What a treat that was to kind of roll out of bed around 7:45 or 8:00 (instead of 5:00 :( …) and the girls both were good until just about 8:00 as well. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with a few other families who also opted out of the morning’s tour (Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City…). All of it was also outside and a lot of walking, which it nicer weather would probably be alright, but we erred on the side of “kid comfort” today… Can never go wrong there :). We did head back to do some shopping for some things we saw yesterday, but were only out and about for around an hour and a half – so it was a nice low-key morning. Our goodbye China party is tonight, so all of the girls are sleeping behind me now to try so we can enjoy a little later evening with everyone at the party. And then it is tomorrow – Thursday – Our last day here :( I have mixed feelings about this as it is such a fantastic place with so much to see and do, but home is calling as well so we can get everyone back and start to settle in (and play the jet lag game again… YAY!) :( I can say that I will look forward to our getting home, but we will see what the plane ride has in store for us too… Only time will tell.

C & J & S & M

This is the White Pagoda - we did not get a chance to visit, but did get a look

I tried to get as many of the group in as I could on this tour shot... There are quite a few of us :)

In the stroller and ready for action...

How the silk gets unwound from the cocoon - Still very labour intensive but beats doing it by hand!

How tiny is silk anyway? One strand from one cocoon is this big, and will be about 1300 metres long... The cocoon is about the size of my thumb, so that is impressive!

Tha Stair Master Redux

2010-11-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

The Stair Master Redux

Well, it is official – “Feel the burn” has a whole new meaning :) Today was a tour of a jade factory and then the Great Wall. The tours that are run are mostly government tours, so there are specific places you visit during an outing. This was the same tour we were on when we picked up Sylvie, so it was nice to be a bit more relaxed and get to enjoy a little scenery instead of blasting through it and moving on to the next thing. The first stop was the jade factory, where we ran into Karla and Shea and their new little one, Victoria. It was great to see them and see that they were all starting to settle in (as much as you can when you are living out of a suitcase and a hotel room…) Spent a little time in the shop there getting (you guessed it) some jade – We picked up a jade rat pendant for Mary, as her zodiac sign is a rat the same as Sylvie. Joyanne is a snake, but is that really THAT hard to guess? … :) (Love You – No poison in my sleep please…) Oh, and I am an Ox, which is not that surprising either because I am ~~stupid~~ ~~stubborn~~ strong enough to stick with that one :) I know, I know, where would I be without her? (Trust me she reminds me all the time…)

Next stop was the Great Wall, and I have to tell you, even this time around it was still a sight to see. Whenever I look at this country and think of its history I marvel in the sheer volume of it. Shanxi was a fantastic province to visit for just that, and Beijing is no different – The city and area are built on history. So, up the wall we go – you get the ‘hard’ and the ‘not quite as hard’ routes to choose from here, and I have to say that even the ‘not quite as hard’ tour is still a heck of a leg workout, especially with a munchkin strapped on your front. Stopped for a quick photo op and proceeded up (and subsequently down) the wall. After the jaunt we met up with our group in the coffee shop as they straggled in from their adventures. And by coffee shop, I do mean Irish coffee – Gotta have a licensed tourist trap close by to something like this – Even I could market that :). We even got to be a part of (or well, rather blamed for) the first snowfall at the wall for the year. After everyone arrived, we were back on the bus and off for lunch at a Cloisonné factory.

Cloisonné’s are enamel-baked items (vases, statues, masks, etc.) that are fired onto bronze (or some other metal) so they do not break when they are dropped (or thrown depending on your household). They were built to appease an Emperor that has a fascination with throwing porcelain to hear it break (apparently to calm himself – no Ativan in that era I guess…). Needless to say, these pieces of art were kind of priceless, so they tried to find another way to create the vases and such that could basically take some abuse… Ergo – Cloisonné’s.

A little lunch and a little shopping (they really get you on these tours if you are not careful) and we started our long trek back to Beijing. This day on the tour was probably our longest by FAR… So everyone was quite tired and we basically staved off the Water Cube and the Birdsnest from the Olympics in 2008… We did drive by them for an out-of-the-window photo op, but the day was dragging on too long, as was traffic, so we cut that out of the events. Again not really a loss for us, as we have seen them before. The girls faired pretty well over the long day, but were both looking forward to some end in sight when we pulled the plug.

Back to the hotel after a long day’s outing some of us decided that we needed some suits made while we were here… We had actually decided the day before, but the tailor was showing up at the hotel today for a measure and fabric choose… He did NOT have the baby blue swatch in his collection, or one of the other fellas and myself would have probably rocked that out just because… Ruffled shirt and all :) But it was not to be, so we are probably better off… A nice man and his assistant (no English… mutters a lot… but seems nice) gave us the run through and said they would be back tomorrow for a fitting… under 24 hours, from the comfort of your hotel room – not too bad :). We will see what is in store for then :)

C (et all)

…Where did you find that suit?? FIND IT? I had to get this MADE… :) Probably best that we did not get our way…

Getting ready for our outing...

Met up with Karla and Shea and Victoria on the tour

I will guarantee that if you see this sign in ANY of the stores you should steer your wife clear because your wallet will start to smoke...

Playin on the bus ride

Our destination...

Bundled up for some hiking...

It was a brisk day... Ready to go!

A view from just before the gates

This wall holds a LOT of people

Still powering through a long day - The blue outside the window is the Water Cube from the Olympics

The bus ride is almost over

Lions, Tigers and Bears – Oh My!

2010-11-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

Lions, Tigers and Bears – Oh My!

Well, Saturday found us (ALL of us – there are 66 people in our travel group in total, not counting guides and drivers and such…) safely at our hotel in Beijing. What do new families do for fun? How ‘bout a trip to the zoo?? (Not all of the families went, but let’s just say the bus was very full…) We did the obligatory tourist things like buy panda hats (well, some of us did) and all of the zoo-like memorabilia, but aside from the Pandas and Big (really BIG) tigers and Lions – it was pretty much a zoo tour. The girls loved it – don’t get me wrong…

When we returned, we decided to attempt another run at a bath for Mary Dan Dan… The first go-around was not so successful – A lot of tears and hollering – Not the piercing shriek she has been doing with the crib, but a close second. We loaded Sylvie into the tub first (hoping that she being the water-baby will rub off on Mary) and it actually was a success… :) She even cracked a few smiles in there, which was very nice to see… One step at a time…

Over the past few days we have noticed that Mary is a much more calmer baby, still cries frequently – but are getting smiles and cuddles from her. She is becoming more confident and will now walk around the hotel room picking up toys and playing with them. Sylvie and Dan Dan have been very good playing together. Mary Dan Dan usually likes to pick up toys, rattle them a bit and then pass them off to Mama, Baba or Jie Jie. So, perhaps she is a good sharer, or Dan Dan does not have the sense of personal ownership yet, as we are thinking there were only group toys at the orphanage.

We are also seeing Mary Dan Dan communicate a bit more with us; she is humming and speaking baby babble when we are out and about. We are seeing many more frequent smiles out of her, and hearing her infectious giggle. She is snuggling into our arms when we hold her, rather than using her death grip, and gives us the toothiest grin when we kiss her cheeks. She is beginning to point to the types of food she would like on her plate, and when she wants you to pass her something. Every little piece opens up a little more of her personality and sheds away some of the seriousness that she has shown us so far – It doesn’t completely disappear, but it is nice to see her drop her guard a little more each time to let us in.

Tomorrow we revisit the giant stair-master, so must do some resting up before a long day. Until then…

C & J & S & M

Bundled up and ready to go!

This one is for Miah... Can you find the panda bear in this picture?? :)

Of course, one of the stars of the show here...

A big white kitty...

A big orange kitty...

A few of the dad's in front of a big rock tiger for a photo op

Kisses for one while the other tries to escape...

A successful bathtime...

and a little playtime in pajamas :)