4 Weeks Home

Jamie and Lilly meeting Lennah

Big Ba, Daddy Ba, and Lennah

Mommy, Lennah, and Grandma

Lennah's new Vietnamese doll from Lillian

Can I have a bath??

Today officially marks four weeks home. It has definately been hectic, joyful, and tiresome. Well, I guess the tiresome comes from me going back to work on Monday. Honestly, I was not worried about leaving Lennah because Keith took care of her in the morning and then took her to Grandpa daycare (aka Big Ba our nickname for grandpa). Lennah did give her Big Ba a hard time the first day but things got better. So much for me not worrying the first day. I think I worried more the second day. Going back to work has been a lot harder than I thought because even on the days when I drop Lennah off I only have about an hour in the morning with her and three hours at night so I feel like I never see her. Hopefully, since it is a three day weekend I will make up for lost during the week time. Good news Lennah is sleeping through the night. She sleeps from a little after 7 pm to about 6:30 am. She is also rapidly progressing. Lennah will sit in the middle of the floor with nothing to grab onto and stand up. I guess this means my prodigy will be walking any day and she only turns 9 months old on Saturday. Lennah also got invited to her first kiddie birthday party that we are going to on Saturday. No more sitting there with a bunch of parents with no stories to share of my own especially when you really wanted to share a story or you get the so when are you going to have a baby harassment. I am sure a lot of you out there know what I am talking about when you have when to your friends kids' birthday party and everyone talks about how Johnny did this and Suzy did that and you totally feel alienated from the conversation. I have discovered not to do this around my other friends who are childless. My other new favorite has come from many people who do not know our situation is "oh now that you adopted you know you will get pregnant" A) how do you know I can't have kids because I adopted and B) who said I even care about biology when it comes to parenting. Oh! well. Oh! the worst part about going back to work is having no time to clean. Hopefully, in addition to spending massive time with Lennah this weekend I will be able to get the house clean. Enjoy the new pics. Oh! some of the pics are from when the Sereika family picked up Lilly at Lennah's orphanage so that was a nice surprise.

P.S. Thanks Lillian Bao Sereika for Lennah's Vietnamese baby doll.

Hopefully Life Long Friends

Today Lennah and I had lunch with my friend Kim and her new son Sheridan. I guess to give everyone a background on this friendship and how God does work in mysterious ways I must go back to around the time of my referral. We accepted Lennah's referral on February 15 two days later I was leave for a cruise to the Caribbean. On the seond day of my cruise I was talking with my mom and other friends who had joined us about how when I return we need to have our homestudy amended. When I said this a man turned around and said are you adopting I said yes. He said us too. I then told him about Lennah and he told us about his son. He introduced me to his wife. Well low and behold they lived 15 minutes away from me and he too was a school teacher. To me it just seems like such a small world when you are almost in Mexico, you meet people adopting from China who live only minutes from you. From that day on we have become friends and I truly believe that God put these people in our lives and he put us into theirs. Today, was beautiful watching both these children together after both of our families waiting months to have them. We even received travel dates within weeks of each other and the day they left we were returning. Hopefully, these children will grow to be life long friends. Kim and I even joke around about how we will arrange their marriage. I am sure we looked bizarre taking photos in a local Mexican restaurant but we were thrilled to see them together.

One month since Gotcha Day

Well, we have had Lennah for a month today. It is hard to believe that we have only had her for this short of time it seems like she has always been a part of our family. It definately has been an amazing time so far she is growing like a weed and I figure she is 17 pounds now. At the doctors 2 weeks ago she was 16.4 pounds and she has definately put on a good bit of weight since then. Last week I took Lennah to get her ears pierced. She was a real champ. She sat through the gun and then looked at me and cried for only about 30 seconds. I know it doesn't really hurt I think the sound just scared her.

We have also had a rough past few days. At the end of last week Lennah developed a bronchial infection and was wheezing really bad so the doctor put her on a nebulizer; she does not like that machine. Lennah has also cut some more teeth and now has 6 teeth. I think she reacts worse to the teething than anything else. However, while she was sick mommy and daddy caught up on some much needed rest because she slept through the night for 2 days. Low and behold once she felt better she is back to her 1:45 am bewitching hour.

Besides being sick everything else with her has been great. We have been visitng friends and just hanging together. On the weekends Keith spends a lot of time with her and gives me a chance to catch up on the house since she does occupy a lot of my time. He loves being with her and it is so cute to see him just gush over her. Today we had a great day and went to the mall, dropped off some stuff at work since I return next week, and I went to the dentist. She was a happy girl today especially since she is feeling a lot better and her teeth are not bothering her. I am not happy about returning to work because I will not spend all day with her but I know she is in good hands at Grandpa day care. I know I am really lucky to have my dad be willing to watch her almost 5 full days a week.

We have also had some friends return from picking up their son in China so we are excited we get to meet him this week. We are hoping that they become great friends. I am also posting a lot of photos since I have made a vow to take a picture a day of Lennah. I have been pretty good at this so far and only missed two days when we first got home because I was sick. We also got emailed our portraits that we took last week so I have to post those.

Welcome Lennah Party

Today we had a welcome Lennah get together so some friends and family could meet Lennah. For once I decided not to cook for everyone and had everyone bring a food item. This was definately a needed and welcomed change since Lennah has kept us quite busy. Everyone loved her and thought she was a little doll. Considering she is cutting another tooth she did quite well. We noticed she has been cranky and not eating well the past 2 days and Keith's aunt discovered a back tooth coming in. She was mainly giggles and smiles for everyone. We had a busy weekend between her party today and yesterday we went for family portraits. I cannot wait until we get our pictures in 2 weeks there were some great solo shots and family shots. Today Keith also said something great while he was feeding her before bedtime. He just turned to me and said I love this little girl. It melts my heart to hear a 6 foot 2 guy say something so sweet. I truly married the most amazing man. Well here are some pictures of today hopefully in two weeks I will be posting our professional shots.

One Week Home

We have been home one week and things are finally really smoothing out. Last night she slept through the night until 5 am. This was huge progress for us. Hopefully, she will keep this up. We also had our first set of shots from the doctor on Tuesday and today we went for all the blood work CHI recommends. She was a trooper with the shots and only cried when they stuck her but today she wailed the whole time. I probably would have too since they drew 4 tubes of blood. She is getting around the house really quickly and will follow you room to room. I have to watch her around the dog food because she likes to play in their water bowl. She started saying ma on the way home from Vietnam but now she yells momma all the time. Hopefully, she realizes she is calling me. Keith is absolutely in love with this little girl. He will get up to help during the night even though he may have worked 12 hours. He is so funny today he said she is his favorite girl and that mom was number 2 favorite girl. I don't mind playing second fiddle to our angel. Oh her top teeth finally came in this week as well.

Calming down

I can officially say that today was a better day on the homefront. After a weekend of being sick and getting over jet lag we finally have had a somewhat normal day. Lennah only woke 3 times last night. Each time she woke up she was not up for very long so we did sleep better. She also let me put her down today to get housework done. I felt like I would never be able to balance the house and her at the same time. It was amazing she went into the pack and play and actually entertained herself while I did laundry. She also let me put her down to dust. Hopefully, every day will improve on her sleep. I think she realizes that we are not leaving if we put her down to play by herself.
Again, I would to say thanks for all the kind words from everyone. I cannot wait to read everyone else's stories and comment on their travels.

We're Home

Ahhh! Home sweet home. After many hours in airports and fighting jet lag I am able to take a few minutes to post while Lennah sleeps. Well, we left Vietnam on Wednesday evening we did have some flight issues. When we got to the airport they had said that our domestic flight was confirmed so we did not have to fly standby. When we finally got to LAX and ran to catch our flights they told us that we were still booked for Friday and that we wouldn't be able to get a flight until the morning. I asked for a manager and they got us on standby for the next flight after all; luckily we had a high priority and made it so we arrived home Thursday morning around 11. We are so happy to be home we missed our animals, real food, out own bed, etc. Our trip was great but we definately are spoiled Americans and missed every comfort of home. Do not get me wrong our trip was wonderful but we realize how lucky we are to live in such a great country where our children do not have to sell postcards on the streets at 10 years old to help pay for rent and pay for school. As Americans we take so much for granted and we really do not know what poverty is. We really should thank God every day that we are Americans.

Now for our home life. Lennah has become a handful. When we first got home she let me put her in the baby einstein once and that was it. I will lucky enough to get some pictures of her in there. She has a stubborn streak and will not bend. It could be from the jet lag, we can't put her down and leave her sight. She hates anything that confines or restrains her so every typical baby gadget causes problems. You put her in the pack and play and she screams. She gets angry looks at us and yells. Keith thinks its amusing but I really hope we can get her over this since I will be back to work in a few weeks. Grandma stayed to help out last night which was nice but she still woke me up since she did not know how to mix her bottles so I still had interupted sleep but it was definately helpful. And now of course that we are back I am coming down with a sinus infection so it will definately take us a few more days to be back to normal.

Going Home

We are now sitting in the lobby of the Guoman hotel waiting to leave at 4 to catch our flight to Hong Kong. Overall, our trip was not too bad but Hanoi was really boring. We have to fly standby on our Los Angeles flight but I called Delta and they said we should be home August 2 sometime around 7 or 8 am. See everyone then.