At home for 6 weeks now!!

We have been home from China with Anna for 6 weeks now! I can't believe it's only been 6 weeks as it seems like we've had her all along! She is doing better and better everyday and she loves meeting new people with a 'high-five' and gives them smiles all the time! She really is just doing incredible with her new home, she sleeps 12 hours at night and wakes up happy, she takes great naps, is eating good, loves her sisters and laughs so much!! We haven't gotten her out much, just the usual errands and to the big girls' activities like swimming lessons and gymnastics and she does great! We are going to wait on the 'big' stuff like the church nursery until the end of the summer. We just aren't sure what would be going through her little mind, and we would hate for her to think we are leaving her.

Speaking of 'leaving her', we have left her here at our house with both my mom and Jaime's mom just recently and she did super! She loves her Mia and her Mimi, that's for sure. Though she can't talk she finds a way of 'asking' for them and it's so cute!

We took her to the cleft specialist a couple of weeks ago and loved her doctor, Dr. Fearon. He thought the surgeries she already had looked great and for us to see the ENT on their cleft team and so that appoinment is July 19th. Dr. Fearon seems to think she has fluid in her ears and will need tubes put in and he feels that is the cause of her not talking, because she isn't able to hear clearly so we will see what the ENT says on the 19th. If she does need tubes put in her ears then while she is under for that Dr. Fearon will lengthen her lip at that time. If she does not need tubes then we will wait a little longer for her lip. He said in his experience that the longer you wait the less surgeries you need to do so we are loving that philosophy! Again, we were very impressed with him and have heard many wonderful things about him.

Also, great news on her blood work (the time she had to get poked 4 different times by two different nurses at two different labs)...everything came back normal and looked great! Thank you God!!

We are already planning her 2nd birthday as that is July 25th!! She loves Elmo so an Elmo party is what she will get. It's been fun planning her first ever 'real' birthday celebration! We will post pictures of that for sure! Jaime is working on updating the website for more pictures so be on the lookout for new pictures soon! The address for that is on my last blog entry.

Thanks again to those who have prayed for us and for Anna, have brought meals, have come to visit and meet our sweet Anna as we always enjoy 'showing her off' to everyone!! To say we are proud parents is an understatement! ;-)

I'll try to do better with the updates...sorry!
Take care,
~Melissa