Definitely a Girl

I thought being on maternity leave would give me more time to blog.  But I have been busy with cooking for people and making Mui-mui's scrapbook.  Mui is now 15 mons old.  She actually understands alot of thing in Cantonese.  Things that she understands are sit, eat it, don't eat it, kiss, where is your shoes? and give me the book. She can climb up and slide down the baby slide in our house.  She is still very attach to me.  When I am at home with her, she always wants to be by my side.  And sometimes that's not enough, I have to hold her.  She is us curious, friendly, outgoing, and a joy to have.  Whenever, I take her to the park she would just walk up to a stranger and talk to her.  She would even want them to hold her.  Hmmmmm....not sure if she thinks everyone is her care giver. 

She is definitely a girl.  She loves shoes; her shoes and  other people's shoes.  We let her wear the pink soft Robeez shoes (see pix - she is ready to go out) inside the house to give her more traction.  I would take them off when I put her to nap.  As soon as she wakes up, she points to them and wants me to put them back on.  Or when I change her diaper and take off her shoes, she would want them back on immediately.  When I hold  my keys and purse, she knows we are going to go out.  So she would find her outside shoes and head to our laundry room, sit down on the floor and raise her leg so I can help her with her shoes. 

Praise the Lord that we found a nanny to come to our house and care of Mui when I go back to work.  She goes to our church and also takes care of our friends' mom.  I just hope she will be good and can take good care of Mui and the boys.  I am a little nervous about how it will be since we don't know her that well.

Eating got better

Thanks everyone for asking and for your prayers and concerns.  Karissa is eating better.  I realized that we have communication issues.  She wants something, but we didn't know she was trying to tell us something by closing her mouth.  We thought she didn't want to eat or not hungry.  She is moody and has be to  in the right mood to eat.  Turns out that she does want to eat.  She mainly wants to eat what we eat.  The problem with that was that she didn't know how to chew.  So I had to keep feeding her baby food and porridge.  She was sick of those things.  Now that she can chew, she is eating a wider variety of food.  I have been making her chicken noodle soup and pasta. 

I am now taking my maternity leave and staying at home with Karissa until the end of May.  I thought I will have alot of free time not working.  If you know me, you'll know that I am not the kind of person that sits around.  I fill up my time home with activities that I normally can't do because I am at work, like visiting friends and cooking for them.  I enjoy spending time with Karissa, but have been busy with errands, cooking daily, any my research paper and final.  One main goal for my time at home is to make a scrapbook for Karissa documenting how God brought her to us.  I really hope I can get this done, it's such a big project. 

Her Heart Condition

Monday was Karissa's appointment with the pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital.  The technician took an echocardiogram of her heart.  It is basically a 2D ultrasound of her heart.  The doctor was able to see the hole and measured it.  He said her condition is called Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA).  All fetuses in the womb has a Ductus Arteriosus, a hole in the heart where oxygen rich blood can bypass the lung to get to the body.  This is because fetuses does not need to breath through the lungs.  But when the baby is born and starts to breath on her own, this hole should close.  Karissa's hole measures 1.5 mm, which is 50% smaller than what was reported to us from China.  This is great news!  That means it is closing up on its own.  The cardiologist said that we have nothing to worry about and there is a 85% chance that it will completely closed on its own.  So for now all we have to do is monitor it.  If it doesn't close in a couple of years, then he would recommend surgery. 

What a relieve this is.  We praise God for His healing hands upon Karissa.  Hebron and I felt strongly that the Lord called us to adopt a child with a medical condition.  God, in His infinte wisdom, knows what we can and cannot handle.  So He gave us a child with a very minor condition.  He used her heart condition to speed up the adoption process for us.  If we did not step out in faith, even though we were nervous about the unknown, and pursue a child with a medical condition, we would still be waiting.  Choosing to adopt a child with a medical condition was not what I orignally intended to do, so I was reluctant at the beginning.  After we proceeded with this decision, I was still a bit scared.  Everytime those fears surfaced, I felt God telling me to have faith and trust in Him.  Now that I can see the entire picture, I realized that everything was part of God's plan.  His plan is always the best.

Eating Battle

Why does eating have to be a battle for all my children?  Many adopted children from China eat really well.  But not Karissa.  I am not sure what is going on with her.  For about a month now, she has been moody during meal time.  In China, she ate everything and drank everything we gave her.  After over coming jet-lap in the US, she ate alot too.  So I know she has the capacity to eat.  Something changed and she is not eating much at all.  She does not like jar baby food, so my mom and I have been making fresh baby food for her.  It's so frustrating when she doesn't eat.  Many people say she will eat when she is hungry.  Well, that is not completely true.  She refuses to eat so we will do what she wants.  After skipping a meal, I know she is hungry, but she gets moody.  She wants a toy to play with when she eats.  And because we want her to eat, we give it to her.  Then she would throw it down on the ground and wants us to pick it up.  If we don't pick it up, she won't open her mouth.  So we pick it up and she takes a bite.  Then she would throw it down again and refuses to eat until we get the toy.  We also tried not giving her a toy.  She would be soo grumpy and frustrated that she will wave her arms around to prevent us from feeding her and of course her mouth is shut.  Ahhhhh......so frustrating.  One of my pet peeve is feeding children who do not want to eat.  Both of the boys were bad eaters.  They didn't want to eat and when they do eat, they didn't eat much.  But at least they are not moody. 

Karissa does not know how to chew yet, so she can't eat table food as a full meal.  Making baby food for her is a lot of work.  Cooking meat and vegetable and blending it takes a long time.  But I don't mind making it if she actually eats.  I just don't know what to do with her.  I am anxious and nervous every meal time.  I really cannot tolerate moody children.  If she is moody and does not want to eat, then maybe I just shouldn't feed her.  But on the other hand, I want her to eat very badly.  So part of me want to give in and pick up the toy everytime she drops it so she will eat.  But emotionally, I know I won't be able to keep it up.  Both Hebron and I are totally frustrated and don't know what to do.  If you had the same experience and tried something with your kids that works, please let us know.

Birth Announcement

We are finally getting around to sending out birth annoucement/our annual family update.   It's been such a adventure filled year that we want to dedicate this year's update to praising God and thanking Him for His love and provision.  At the beginning of our adoption journey, we were filled with anxiety and fear.  Now looking back, we can see that God was with us every step we took.   If you still did not receive our newsletter update and want one, please send us an email.  We might have gotten the wrong address or some how missed it.

Wednesday is Awana night

My hopes, as a Christian mom, are that my children grow up knowing that they are loved by their Creator (God), loving Him whole heartedly, and serving Jesus Christ unreservedly.  That is why I am constantly teaching the boys this verse.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5. 

I may stir up alot of constroversy for this statement; my goal is not to raise academically successful kids who will make it to Ivy league schools and earn lots of money.  My definition of success is not the same as the world's definition of success and certainly not the same as "Tiger Mom."  That does not mean I don't want them to strive for academic excellence.  I, myself, am still going to school to get a master in business.  What I mean is that I don't want to just focus on academic achievements, but rather to give the boys a good foundation in Biblical truth.  I want them to know Christ and have the desire to know Him more, which is why I bring them to Awana every Wednesday night at Castro Valley First Baptist Church.  Awana is a kids' club that teaches Biblical truth and emphasizes on scripture memory.  The church runs Awana like the way my church (CIBC) runs vacation bible school in the summer.  There are games, Bible memorization, messages, and singing.  It is also similar to boy/girl scout in the sense that they can earn patches.  After a certain amount of memory verses, they earn ironed-on patches and jewels.  Caleb have been memorizing a few verses a week and Joshie one short verse a week.  Because Awana is in the middle of the week, sometimes I don't want to take them, especially when I have lots to do for work and school.  But Hebron and I make that a priority because we saw that they enjoy it and it establishes the discipline of memorizing God's word as a family.  In addition to verses, Caleb also memorized all the books of the Old and New Testament.  Joshie is learning too by following Caleb.  Here they are singing it.  Seeing how they learn made all my effort worthwhile.

Happy 1st Birthday Karissa!

We have the priviledge of celebrating Karissa's 1st birthday.  I know in adoption that is not always possible, so we are very thankful.  The boys sang the happy birthday song to Mui-mui this morning and as a tradition from Happiness Hill Preschool, they continued to sing "we are glad God made you, we are glad God made you, we are glad God made youoooo, we are glad God made you." That just got me thinking of how God made Karissa.  So on the BART ride to work, I was overwhelmed with emotions of thankfulness.  Psalms 139: 13 -16 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  I often use this verse to tell the boys that God made them special and with a purpose.  Every life is valuable because God has a plan for each person.  I have always knew this to be true because when I was pregnant with the boys, I knew inside me were precious gifts.  But now I realized that God, in His sovereignty planned a precious gift for me inside someone else's womb.  I have never thought about it that way.  Karissa is a joy to have and I can't imagine our family without her.  It's amazing that in just two months we have grown so attached. 

Today Mui-mui also had her 12 months well baby check-up and got the result of her blood test.  She has a clean bill of health and currently at 19 lbs 4 oz.  She gained 2 lbs since we got back to the US.  Boo to the nurse that gave her three shots on her birthday.

Her first taste of cake.  She loved it!  She was holding my hands to make sure that I gave her some.  Thank you to Uncle Tim and Auntie Marilyn for the royal outfit.

Late to school for the first time

In the last post, I shared that Caleb spilled his milk right when we were about to leave for school.  He deliberately disobey me and kept on going. So when he spilled, I felt like God was keeping me calm and giving me a teachable moment. I must cease it and take advantage of it. I need to teach him that there are consequences to his action. He chose to disobey and kept moving, so he made a mess, which causes him to be late for school. I know this is God because I am usually a mad woman/drill sergeant in the morning trying to get the kids fed and to school. I had Joshie change himself. I gave Caleb a roll of paper towel and had him clean the spill. It took him 15 mins, which made him late to school for the first time. After that, he gathered his things in the speed of light and dash for school. He had to get a tardy slip at the office before going to class. He usually looks forward to playing before the bell rings, but he didn't get to do that.  I hope he learned his lesson, but most likely it will take many more times for him to learn that there are consequences to his action.  I realized that when I am focused on teaching him and taking advantage of a teachable moment, then I am less angry at the action itself.

What would you do?

What a tough morning I had!  This is usually our morning routine to get the kids out the door and to school on time. 

6:50 am  Set out breakfast and get dress
7:00        Caleb and Joshie get up to dress and brush teeth
7:15        Feed Mui-mui milk
7:25        Help Joshie brush teeth
7:30        Boys eat breakfast and I change mui-mui's diaper
7:40        Pack lunch for everyone
7:55        Must leave the house to be on time to Caleb's school

As you can see, not much time to waste in the morning.  I don't have time to eat breakfast myself or feed mui-mui until after I drop the boys off.  25 mins for breakfast is short since they eat slow.  But that's the way things are in the morning.  The kids can't get up earlier than 7 am because they are tired.  But any later, they will be late for school.  Today, Caleb and Joshie fooled around at breakfast.  They didn't eat much and was being silly.  Moving around and laughing.  I told them to stop and warned them that they will spill their food.  At 7:55 am, when it's time to leave, Caleb spilled his entire cup of milk and got Joshie wet and it was all over the floor.  Of course I was upset.  I am curious, what would you do at this point? 

Blood work

Today Hebron brought Karissa to get her blood drawn.  This is the second attempt.  The first time the person at Quest Diagnostic lab in CV poked her three times and can't draw any blood.  I didn't want to go back to the same people, so we search around for a place that is more experienced with babies.  So finally went to Quest in San Ramon.  After poking her many times, they were able to draw blood.  Her right arm is literally filled with numerous red dots resulting from the lab work.  They took 5 tubes.  That is a lot for a baby.  Praise the Lord, that the ordeal is over and that Hebron took her.  I am not strong enough to go through it.  The doctor is testing her for AIDS, Syphilis, Hepatitus, lead, immunization, and a whole bunch of other things.  Please pray that the results will show that she is healthy.  After blood work, we have to take her to a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital to check the condition of her heart.  She was diagnosed with Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), basically a hole in her heart.  The pediatrician said that her heart sounds fine and she didn't hear anything unusual. 

While Hebron is pinning Mui-mui down at the lab, I was at work.  This is my second week back.  Work is busy and hectic as my tax busy season is in full swing.  Hebron is on Paid Family Leave during the three days that I am at work.  We are so thankful to our friends and church friends that brought us food and will be bringing us food.  Since I am busy at work, Hebron is suppose to be a stay-at-home dad to take care of the kids, cook, and clean.  So he is very releaved that he is getting help with prepared food.  We have friends who can really cook.  So far meals have been lasagna, chicken pot pie, pasta with chicken, and baked chicken with sweet glaze.  Of course there were desserts such as banana muffins, brownies, and cookies.  Hmmmmm, everything was so delicious.  The kids loved it.  I even fed some pasta to Karissa and she swallowed it whole and wanted more.  We even had leftover so the kids can bring lunches to school.  They ate it all up at lunch too.  I should learn to be a better cook like my friends.  Thank you so much for your kindness to us.  If you need anything, please let us know.  We would jump for the opportunity to be a blessing to you and extend a helping hand.