Sorry!

My apologies for not posting sooner. As you can well imagine, Christmas has been very hectic around here. We never reached that point of "whew...we're done"...we were wrapping presents until 2 AM Christmas morning. We had a very abbreviated display this year. We are normally a 2-tree family with the tree in the family room being the "family" tree and the onle in the living room being the "formal" tree. We only got the family room tree up and didn't even get the LGB up and running this year. Simply too many unknowns with how Anyssa would react and we also did not want to overwhelm her any more than she already was.

We all went to church at 5:00 for the family service. Anyssa wore her first dress (probably EVER). I dressed her and when mommy saw her, she (mommy) cried. She is a beautiful little girl. She did well at the service and when we got home we got jammies on and got ready for bed.

Anyssa's kindergarten teacher gave her some "reindeer food" in a little plastic ziploc bag...basically some Quaker Oats and she put some glitter in too. You're supposed to sprinkle it on your front porch so Santa will know to stop at your house. Again, we had no idea what her thinking on all this was. So...we decided to see how far she would go. We sat her down and explained slowly that tonight, Santa would be coming and would deliver her a present. She got kinda puzzled looking as if to say "here?". Yes, I said...I told her that I let Santa know that Anyssa lived here and to please bring her something because she was very good. I wish I would have had the camera ready because she looked like the Home Alone kid. We got her! She was in for the whole routine. We took her to the computer and went to the NORAD Santa-tracking website and watched him bounce around Michigan into Canada. I showed her on the map where we lived and that he had not been here yet. We went downstairs and put the magic reindeer food out, wrote a note to Santa and left out some cookies. I told her that if she wasn't asleep when he got here, he might not stop. Needless to say, going to bed was pretty easy on Christmas eve.

On Christmas morning, she was up at about 8 which normally would be good except for us still wrapping the presents at 2 AM. No problem...we all went downstairs and would you believe it? Santa had indeed stopped and left her some gifts. He even knew that Dora the Explorer was her favorite character because all of the toosy-fromsies were Dora themed. Wow! She got a toy cell phone (so she could leave ours alone) and some markers and coloring stuff...basic stuff that most kids might turn their noses up at but because it was new to her, it was great. She also got a game for the Wii (which we just got but have not yet hooked up.)

Here is our family picture from church. I'll post more shortly!

School time

Wow...time sure flies. Seems like we just got Anyssa a month ago and now our baby is starting kindergarten! Oh, wait...it HAS only been a month. Time flies when they're so little. Anyway, Anyssa is registered for kindergarten and will be starting when the Christmas break is over in January. Yesterday, the kindergarten teacher called and spoke with Laura and she invited Anyssa to attend the holiday party today. So...she went! She fit right in started doing crafts with some of the other kids. It turns out that our Godson Chima is in her class! We're sitting in the back looking at everyone and all of a sudden, there's this kid waving at us. How cool! We met a couple of the moms, too. I remembered back when our neighbors kids started going to school, they got new friends...the parents of the kids their kids were in school with. Well, I figured that these were the people we would probably get to know over the next few years. They SEEMED like they were younger than us, but I have no idea how THAT could be... :-)

Anyssa on YouTube

I posted a little video that Laura made of Anyssa doing a little song and dance that she learned in China. If anyone has any idea of what she's singing, let us know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwsWpgb4Uk0

Life continues...

Sorry for the delay in getting a post up. Just like the plate spinner on Bozo's Circus, I've been busy making sure none of the plates hit the ground! So far, so good...  :-)

Anyway...where are we. We saw Dr. Ochs and found out that Anyssa's lead levels are down significantly. Still a little ways to go, but moving in the right direction. Today she had her first dental appointment and all looks good. We had our appointment at school and the registration for kindergarten is moving along nicely. She should be starting kindergarten after Christmas break (yes...I still call it Christmas break...not "Winter Break", "Holiday Break" or any of that other PC stuff). I think she will do great. We took a tour of the school and she looked intrigued. We stopped at her classroom to peek in. There was a substitute teacher that day and she invited us in. No hesitation from Anyssa...she walked right in. The kids came over and all said "hello". I think she is more than ready to enter a social setting like school. We are both extremely pleased...looking better than we planned, although I'm not sure exactly what we had planned.

Anyssa went to her first birthday party last weekend. It was Dylan's birthday (he live across the street) and he was turning 5. The party was held at a McDonald's at the Playplace. When we walked in, she just looked around. Slowly, she moved towards the slides. When Dylan's older sister Hailley came over with a couple of friends and invited her to play, that was all she needed. She climbed into the tube montrosity and several minutes later, she popped out of one of the slides at the bottom, smile literally from ear-to-ear. There was a 7 year old girl named Abby who played big sister to Anyssa and hung with her all night...even getting her over to eat and including her in everything. I think she needed that time with other kids...hanging around with 2 (slightly) older people like me and Laura can probably be a drag.

Today, she helped Laura and Miss Dawn make cookies. Carol from church made her a little apron, which she was still wearing when I got home from work, just like mommy. Mommy said she was a big help. I could tell from Anyssa's smile that she had fun, too. One note...I'm old fashioned and prefer if kids address adults with Mr., Mrs. or Miss. So, our neighbors Dawn and Mike are "Miss Dawn" and "Mr. Mike". Laura agrees with me so we'll take this as far as we can. Oh...the cookies were great!

Today, she let let Laura film her doing a song and dance routine that she obviously learned in China. I will upload it to YouTube and post the link later. It's so cute!

Of course, here are your pictures for the past few days



Anyssa and Abby at Dylan's birthday party.




The 2 cookie monsters!



Ear tubes are in

Today was "surgery" day. I put surgery in quotes because it's really a procedure...no cutting involved. They called us last night and wanted us at the hospital at (ugh) 6:30 AM. Laura and I were up early and got dressed. I started the truckster to get the heat blowing (it was 19 degrees this AM with a wind chill at 0). When we were ready, we grabbed Anyssa from a sound sleep, put her coat on her, wrapped her bare feet in a blanket and bolted for the truckster. Got to the hospital and got checked in. The procedure went smoothly. We barely had time to relax in the surgical waiting room when they were calling us to recovery. All in all, it took about 10 minutes. The doctor said that there was a small vacuum behind the ear drum that he released. He vacuumed out a small bit of fluid and inserted the tubes. When we got to her room, she was kind of awake. They put her in Laura's lap and took out the bed. Anyssa slowly gained consciousness and about an hour later, we were back in the truckster heading home. Of course, we were inside just long enough for the engine to cool completely down so we bundled up for a couple of miles until it was blowing warm.

In my opinion, if you ever need to go to the hospital for anything, you want to go to Edwards Hospital. It is more like a luxury hotel that offers health care than a hospital. Coffee in the waiting room? You have to select from about 8 different styles/flavors...unless you prefer tea, that is. Then you only get 6 to choose from. You put your choice into the coffee maker, select your strength and wait for about 30 seconds. It's extremely nice. Yes, the coffee is all I can comment on because other than the staff, that's all I can comment on. Oh...the staff was great too.

We are home and Anyssa can hear. They say she can hear better but we don't know that yet. Only time will tell. We have her admissions appointment at school tomorrow and back to Dr. Ochs to have her TB test read on Friday. Oy! WE hope all goes well with the school because we won't have her hearing test done for about 2 weeks. They'll have to rely on the doctors word and the fact that she responds to sound that she can hear.

Back to the doctor

Tomorrow we head back to Dr. Ochs for Anyssa's follow up visit. We are not sure what he's going to tell us, but we hope he'll be able to complete the vaccination section of the school registration papers. Surgery for ear tubes is Wednesday and then the registration appointment on Thursday. Cross your fingers. Christy (the school principal) said that she thinks Anyssa will do great in kindergarten. I think so too, but then again, I'm biased. It will be good for her to be out of the house in a social situation with kids her own age. Her English is coming along, albeit slowly. I just think of that radio commercial for Rosetta Stone where they talk about how kids don't LEARN a language...they ABSORB it. That seems to be the case.

One funny thing I gotta tell you. I took along an issue of Popular Mechanics to read on the plane and I told Laura that I was going to bring it with to the Great Wall. I told her to take my picture with it and I would send it to the editors...they post pictures of people reading the mag in interesting places. Well, the other day I got a message form the assistant editor...she said they were interested in publishing my pic! No word yet, but if all goes well, you'll all be able to see my mug in the letters section of a future issue of PM!

Anyssa got her first taste of a midwestern winter. When it snowed the other day, Laura and I took her downstairs and plopped her in front of the window and raised the blinds. Classic. The mouth opened and the eyes bugged out. Man! She's seen snow on TV but we don't know if she ever thought she would experience it. I went out to shovel while mommy got her dressed. Then we all headed to the neighbors who were building a snowman. It didn't take long before a snowball fight started...she had a blast! I do have to say that I need to work on her arm...she throws like a girl ;-)

Yesterday we went to the Bass Pro Shop to see the Christmas village they set up. We didn't wait in line for Santa because we didn't think she would know what was going on. I can see it now...half an hour in line, going to see the big guy and her freezing in her tracks. We just stood by the side and Santa waved at her. The big smiles came when she got to climb on the quad-runners and the boats! Those are some pictures to send back to the orphanage!

I'll let you all know how the doctor visit went. Maybe we'll swing by Jim's studio again if he's around. Anyssa like looking at the press and the art!

Getting ready for school...

Our visits to doctors in order to complete the kindergarten registration process is almost complete. We need to return to Dr. Ochs on Tuesday and have him determine which vaccinations she will need. On Wednesday, Anyssa will have surgery to place ear tubes. Apparently she has fluid buildup around her ear drum (complications from the cleft palate). They say that what she hears now probably sounds muffled which could explai why she has trouble with hard letter...T and K specifically. On Thursday, we have an appointment at the school and will hopefully have her registered for kindergarten. She will also be assessed by the ELL teacher and determine what she will need to help her learn English. Sounds easy but this has been a pain to try and get data that you would be building over 5 years ready in 2 weeks. She had her vision test today and passed fine...no glasses needed at this time.

One more question...is it normal for a 5 year old to show you the contents of his/her mouth after chewing food but before swallowing? My guess is yes, but it never hurts to ask!