Six Months in Our Arms

I know it's been a long time since I've updated, and I apologize for that. So much has happened in the last six months. So much has happened since I last updated, that I couldn't begin to tell it all, but I'll fill you in on a few things, so that you can have an idea how life with Raeanna has been over the last few months.


Today makes six months since we first held our beautiful, little daughter in our arms.  What an amazing journey it has been!  She has grown a whopping 5 inches and gained 9 pounds since that day in September. She has blossomed from a child who was very much like an 18 month old baby to a child who seems to be about 3 years old. We celebrated her birthday on February 14th with her brothers, sister, and Adam's mother, even though we didn't know how many candles to put on the cake. Hopefully, the doctors will decide on a birthdate sometime in the near future, and we'll have a big party for her then.

It really has been awhile!  We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving and Christmas with her! She was so excited to celebrate everything.  We went to Mississippi for both holidays, and she loved spending time with all of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  She absolutely LOVED Santa Claus!  She figured out early what that man was all about!  When she saw him, she went to him with open arms for him to hold her in his lap.

The first week in January, we went to Cincinnati Children's for testing.  We drove everyday for a week to have tests done that week. They had to give her general anesthesia on two of the days, and they kindly let me hold her until she was asleep. Even so, she knew something was up and got really upset at the sight of the doctors and hospital bed, etc. I miraculously held it together until she was unconscious, and then proceeded to lose it.  When I looked up, every nurse on the hall was wiping tears.  Anyone would've had to be a cold-hearted person not to be affected by her.  At the end of the week, she seemed to be more secure than ever that we were going to be there for her, and that she could count on that. For the first time since we got her, she wanted to go play in the nursery at church, and she was okay with us leaving her there to go to church. We never left before because she wasn't ready to be separated from us, but after being there everyday in the labs and surgery recovery rooms, she somehow felt more secure now that we would be back for her.  I never thought such a traumatic experience would do that! She still tells me "You come too," when I take her to the nursery, but when I explain that I'm going to church and she can come with me or stay and play while I go to church,  she chooses to go play.

Raeanna has become quite the active little girl. She loves to "play ball" as she says,  run and play, and explore everything.  She plays well with toys now and with other children, (two things she didn't do in the beginning.)
She has a great imagination. She loves her kitchen set and her dolls and her farm animals. She watched Elmo and Tinkerbell over and over again for awhile.  Now it's Finding Nemo.

We got some good news and some bad news from the colorectal doctors in Cincinnati.  She was one of only 3 children they had ever seen from China that didn't need a redo of the surgery done in China. We were so relieved that she didn't need to have that surgery done, because it required a 10 day stay in the hospital with no food by mouth for the whole time.  Given her food issues, that was something I was really dreading. By the way, she doesn't eat nearly as much as she did, but it's still a lot for a little girl.  She also doesn't have any of the urinary or female problems that children born with her condition tend to have. Very good news! The bad news was that a part of her colon had been removed in China. For children born in this country like her, they don't remove it anymore. That was the way it was done over 30 years ago here.  It will require us to help her practice careful bowel management, but hopefully and prayerfully, it will be easy to control.  She will have surgery in July, after Katey's wedding, to repair her abdominal scar and the hernia in it.

Katey and Adam are getting married on July 2nd. He proposed in Mississippi the day after Christmas. Raeanna has really enjoyed shopping for the wedding.  She was so excited to try on "pretty dressies." She's a girly girl in so many ways, but yet she loves trucks and legos.

Raeanna tells me "Mama, Jixiao's happy!", and it absolutely melts my heart everytime she says it. She wakes up happy in the morning, with a "good morning, Mommy!" She's happy most of the time, but she screams and cries when she doesn't get her way and could probably go on for hours, but we can usually distract her with something else. This morning she did her usual giggling and sillyness and suddenly got a really serious look on her face. She looked into my eyes, and said "I love you." She tells us she loves us all the time, but this morning, it was so heartfelt and serious. Soooo sweet! She's very affectionate, freely giving hugs and kisses to her mama and baba everyday. She truly seems very happy. She has always said "mama" a million times a day, but for some reason, I have become "mommy" over the past few weeks. It has been and still is music to my ears.

Raeanna loves to sing. She sings at the top of her lungs. She sings "Happy Birthday," "Jesus Loves Me" and "ABCs."  Her latest song has been Justin Bieber's "Baby, Baby."  She gets the little guitar and sings "Baby" over and over again.

I know I've said it before, but we've been so blessed beyond words to have Raeanna in our family. There are so many children, just like her, who need families. I know it doesn't always go as well for adoptive families as it has for us, and it's not always easy to open your heart and your home to a child.  Sometimes the adjustment period can be hard, but if you feel that you're being called to adopt,  please check into it. If you have any questions about it, feel free to contact me. I would love to help you along the way.

There's so much more I could share, but I know you'd probably like to see pictures of her more, so I'll post several pictures. For some reason, my pictures won't all upload, so I'll upload on a separate post. Hopefully, it won't be so long before my next post!  :)



Taken the day after Thanksgiving for her announcement by her Aunt Mary Jo