The Christmas Story

I love this ... seriously, so precious!

A little sunshine for your day

Less than 24 hours out from surgery now. So glad I shot this quick video with my iPhone ... I'll have to play it for Sunshine afterward. LOL.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, we sure can feel them! Surgery is at 8:45am tomorrow morning - we have to be at the hospital at 6:45am. I'm actually GLAD and relieved about that - less time that we have to starve our precious baby girl ... and less time for her to be scared beforehand. I'm not sure how long the surgery will last - the last one was about an hour but it was a "quick" repair. And although this definitely isn't a tough surgery like the palate repair, it's certainly more involved than the last one. I'll have more information tomorrow from the surgeon and will be updating my FB page more regularly than the blog.

Dinner time at our house

Dinnertime is like this at your house too, right?! LOL. Total chaos and I love every minute of it :-)

T minus 2 days

The pictures didn't go as planned. At all. LOL. So, here are a couple videos to share instead ... the first is Sunshine dancing to the Fresh Beat Band. I'm not sure what it is about that TV show, but she just loves it - always gets her bopping :-) This was right before bedtime, so she had her special boogaloo and nana blanket (which she likes to chew/suck - but only on one side). If you listen closely, you can hear her singing for a second in the 3rd part of the video ... oh that just melts my heart! She loves to dance and sing and it is the CUTEST thing ever!

The 2nd video was taken on my iphone (sorry) of her quickly scooting her little behind. She gets around all over the house this way ... and it still cracks me up every. single. time. Especially when she does the "I'm so excited and I can't get to you fast enough" scoot ... which I sorta captured in the video :-) 

PS - Youtube seems to be having some technical difficulties, I'm sorry if the videos aren't working right now. I wanted to do this post tonight anyway because it is a bit time sensitive with her surgery coming up. They are definitely uploaded and are showing on my iphone but not on my macbook. Who knows!!

Catching up

Our weekend in review!! Where does the time go?!

Lots of playing ...

Sunshine is such a busy girl all. day. long. She never stops! It's so cool to watch her "work" ... she is so curious and is constantly learning new things! She is really good at playing by herself most of the time and loves that play kitchen! Her favorite toy so far is the tea set - you can see bits of it laying around in the pictures. She likes to imitate us having tea by stirring things with spoons - love!

In that last shot, you can see her demonstrating a skill she had just figured out - scooting ON something ... totally quicker and more efficient :-) We are all about efficiency in this house!

Next up, we have 2 videos - the first one is a super-fun clip of Sunshine splashing in the baby pool with Angel & Lovebug. She is such a water baby and had a blast! I pieced the video together from several clips I shot while we were outside, so you'll see it broken up a little.

The second video was taken earlier tonight as we were finishing up dinner with her. She is getting really good at imitating us and THIS one is hysterical, I just had to share. The little nose crinkle is about the cutest thing ever. LOL.

I know I am her mom, but I stand in awe watching her ... we have our tough times just like any other family but she is such a happy, well-adjusted baby girl. She is affectionate and sweet and looks to us for approval. She is so smart and is picking things up so quickly! It's truly miraculous to watch God work through her. I have already learned so much from her and I know it's only the beginning. It is such an honor to be her mom ... to be given the opportunity to watch her life unfold and help her grow. Wow, just in awe. God is so good.

And then we have Lovebug making a super-goofy face with a mouth full of Noodles. LOL. This is a pretty typical sight at our house - Lovebug being goofy AND him having a mouth filled with macaroni :-)

I'd also love to include a shot or 2 of Angel, but she is in a "no pictures, please" phase ... I feel bad because she has been kind of neglected on the blog, but she refuses to take any pictures for me! Actually I guess both of the older 2 have been neglected a bit recently ... but I have lots of catching up to do with Sunshine!

A quick update on the medical stuff - we are off to our Cleft Clinic appointment tomorrow. It's not invasive, just long. We'll meet with the surgeon who will do her surgeries, his amazing nurse ... along with a speech pathologist, a dentist and orthodontist, a geneticist and an ENT. Oh, and she'll have a hearing test. Woooo! Long day, but this is the last doctor's appointment with the cleft team before her first surgery on Aug 18th! Hard to believe we are less than a month out!

And one more teeny weeny piece of information about something huge, totally wonderful, and absolutely a God thing ... our dear, dear friends, The W.'s, will be meeting their baby girl in China in about a half hour! You may remember me writing about them - they are the family that received their referral the same day as us ... their daughter was born the day before Sunshine, in the same province, taken to the same orphanage, with the SAME special need of CL/CP. Our families have been forever intertwined and our girls will always be China sisters ... heck, they are practically twins! Just amazing how God weaves things together, isn't it? The people that are placed in your lives ... wow, just so cool. Anywho, if you'd like to head over to their blog and follow their journey (which will practically be the same as ours!), don't forget to leave them some love with an encouraging comment or two! It's so helpful to read them while in China!

ANGIE & CLINT - If/when you read this - We are praying for you and can't wait to see your baby girl in your arms! I have been thinking about you non-stop, we are right there with you!

Peek-a-boo, Sunshine style

Mostly, I just love this video because of Sunshine's addictive giggle! LOL. She has gotten into playing peek-a-boo after she eats and just totally cracks me up!

I had to piece this one together - there were a ton of distractions in the background and video editing is not yet one of my talents. So I cut the parts out where you really couldn't hear what was going on. You'll still hear DH's phone call in the background and the dogs barking at the end ... but that's how things go, c'est la vie, right?

4 weeks

So today we celebrate being Sunshine's family for four weeks! Wow! Part of me feels like she's still so new to us, but the other part of me feels like she was always here with us because of how well she fits in. Crazy. She has made so much progress in these 4 weeks and has adjusted miraculously well. Here are some of the things we know about our baby girl after having her for 4 weeks:

• She can definitely light up a room - joy and happiness just explode out of her! She exudes sunshine!
• She loves to sing in her baby-ish cleft kinda way ... I don't want to be biased but I think her favorite is Chris Tomlin.
• She also loves to imitate us and really enjoys "talking."
• Everything makes her happy and anything can be a toy. Her favorite "non-toy" toys are coffee cans, paper and water bottles (the extra noisy ones are preferable).
• She has clear opinions and knows what she wants. LOL. She has even been known to have a pretty good temper ... seems she fits right in with the rest of us :-)
• She is definitely a snuggle bug and is a great sleeper (when she isn't teething).
• She is one flexible little lady - have you SEEN her amazing trick?!
• She eats everything and gets excited whenever she sees it's time to eat! DH says she has the best "palate" for someone who doesn't have a palate. LOL. We had a good chuckle about that one.
• She is ticklish and has a totally contagious laugh!
• She loves being around people but is shy around strangers.
• She is one of those figure-out-how-it-works types - she will sit for way longer than I'd think possible for a one-year-old to figure something out!
• She adores bath time! When I take her into the bathroom, her little arms and legs start flapping all over and she has a grin from ear to ear. I think she'd stay in there all day if I let her!

Things she has started doing since we've been her family:

• Signing! She doesn't sign many words and only does them when *she* wants to - but she can definitely sign "milk" and "more"!
• She also uses eye contact, simple noises and hand gestures to communicate what she wants - this is a huge improvement over the physical ways she was communicating at first!
• She has much more patience now and will wait a bit longer for something she wants (like food - LOL) without getting upset right away. She also has more patience for the older kids when they want to over-love on her.
• She claps and is very proud of herself for doing it!
• She waves "hi" with her index finger (when she wants to). It is the cutest thing ever and she was even flirting with the guy behind us at church while doing it.
• She can feed herself now, woohoo!
• She participates and helps us get her dressed now - this is a huge improvement over the floppy wet-noodle she was in the beginning.
• She actually LOVES to be on her belly now - when we first got her in China, she got very mad when we tried tummy time.
• She can also roll over *with* assistance - this also used to make her upset and she would push her body in the opposite direction to stop us. Now she helps do it!
• She can scoot all around and I think she might even crawl with the way she is starting to pull her legs under her body!
• She *likes* to hang out in the jumperoo for short periods of time - her leg strength is really improving!
• She can stand up for short periods while holding onto something - she is super-proud about that one :-)
• She looks to us for comfort and approval AND loves to bury her face in our legs, chest, or shoulder ... actually any part of our body works for her - she just likes to be close to us!
• She lets us touch her head and ears now - in the beginning she would hit our hands whenever we tried. I think she felt those areas were "off-limits" to us because she scratches there to self-sooth.
• Speaking of the self-soothing thing, she is doing that A LOT less - she used to dig and dig at her scalp and ears, along with her belly, legs AND arms. She has scars on her forehead from doing it. I have heard it's a sensory thing? Either way - she does this much less and rarely touches her legs and arms now. She also doesn't stick her fingers in her ears much (no, it isn't an ear infection - just her soothing technique). She now only scratches when she is over-tired or doesn't like what's going on. Baby steps!
• She is really learning to trust us. We assume that she probably *had* to demand everything she needed in her foster home, but she is slowly learning that we will always meet her needs. Major progress there!

Ok, I think that's it for now - I'm sure I missed some but that's definitely a good recap! We seriously fall more and more in love with Sunshine everyday - she is such a blessing and the perfect addition to our family! In celebration of our 4-week anniversary, I put together a short video about our first few weeks HOME. This *isn't* our adoption movie (still working on that one), but this is a fun, short video with some new stuff that you haven't seen yet! Enjoy!

For your viewing pleasure

And the chronicles of Sunshine's hysterics continue ... I am not nearly as funny as Daddy, but hopefully I am good enough to pass a little time with! LOL. I just can't get over her, she is such a trip! EVERYTHING makes this chick happy and she has adjusted so well! Remember everyone - she hasn't even been HOME for 2 weeks yet! 2 weeks!! How awesome is she?!

The last couple of days

If you know me, you'll know that I am a planner. I plan EV-ER-Y thing ... down to the last detail. I have always been that way and always will be that way. I like it ... it totally works for me. I planned ALL of the details for our adoption trip - our time in China and the time for the kids at home. What I did NOT plan for was the jet lag afterward ... wow, it's brutal! I am happy to say that things are definitely improving though - we are starting to return to a new sense of normal and it's so nice! Sunshine is still pretty exhausted and has literally almost fallen asleep while eating several times. LOL. Unfortunately this makes for a somewhat miserable baby - I know this isn't her normal self though and I can't wait to see the happy Sunshine again! Her awake-time at night is getting so much better - only an hour and a half the night before last starting at 3:30am and just a half hour last night from 4am-4:30am! Yay!

Anywho, here are a few images over the last several days ... we are making a lot of effort to get Sunshine outside as much as possible. I'm a little sad it's raining today, hopefully it clears up for a bit!

Thank you SO much to everyone that has been checking in on us ... we are trying to figure things out as a family of 5 and are slowly getting over the jet lag. I'm still getting used to entertaining a one-year-old also - I had forgotten how much effort that takes! Sunshine is making lots of improvements physically - she can feed herself now, will lay on her belly for tummy time and is starting to hold a little weight on her legs! She is picking everything up so quickly! I can't wait to see how she will dazzle us next!

I just took this video above ... I know I have been bragging about Sunshine's flexibility - check it out in action! I put her on her belly for some tummy time, went to grab a drink, and when I turned around, voila!, she was sitting again. LOL. I HAD to get that on video!! Her legs rotate inside her body for a complete split, holy cow!

Also, here's another video that I shared on Facebook but hadn't blogged yet. It's from the first night we had Sunshine in Nanchang, I still can't get over how much she was laughing and having a good time! What an amazing little girl we have as our DAUGHTER!