Merry Christmas to All!

My first visit with Santa Claus!

Rubber Ducky You Make Bathtime Lots of Fun!

My First Luncheon with the Ladies

Today I had my first lunch out with the ladies at Miss Pat's. Here I am with Miss Joy who gave am a lovely brown stuffed bear.


I crawled around a lot and really liked the lighted star at the top of the Christmas tree.

Miss Pat spoiled me and played on the floor with me! She also gave me lots of toys to play with while I was crawling around.

"Please no photos! Can't you see I am the star of the show!" But I do love all my fans!

I ate from a spoon today!

My mother is thrilled! This will make the surgery recovery better and it means I am making progress. I loved the apple with pears...yum!

Getting ready for our first Christmas together!

Luckily she can't speak yet. So she will have to take what Santa gives her:-) Of course, she will be spoiled I am sure! Enjoy the pics!

Home for the Holidays!

Hello to all,

Sorry for not blogging since being home, but it has been quite an adjustment for both Isabell and me. Because of all the changing of places, flights, car rides, etc. she has had a hard time with sleep as she does not know where she is or was upon waking. Therefore, when she is asleep I am falling out myself. It is true if you don't sleep when they do you don't get any rest. But luckily she is now getting in some 10 and 11 hours shifts overnight and that is helping both of us.

We went up to UAB to visit the clinic and have her assessed. So far all the feed back is she is fine. Because of a lack of stimulation in the orphanage she is developmentally delayed which is common. So even though chronologically she is 17 months, developmentally she is about 9 months old and intellectually about 12 month. As I mentioned, this is quite common for children from orphanages, so now we will be getting the proper therapy she needs to get caught up with children her own age. This will take some time, but that is ok.

Regarding her cleft palette, we also visited a plastic surgeon (one of the best) at UAB yesterday and he will repair her bilateral CP. The surgery will be done on January 28th in Birmingham. This will be good timing as it gives us more time to build our bond, a routine and her self confidence in her new surroundings and me.

While up in Birmingham, we went to visit Sandra Grace, who came home from China about a month before Isabell. She was in the hospital recovering from the same surgery and seemed to be doing very well. This gave me great confidence that it will go well for us too. (Please keep Isabell in your prayers for the surgery as it will be rough, but it will help her so much.)

Other than that, I am learning to get up at 5 a.m. to do bottles and laundry (ok, for those who know me don't laugh:-). My home has clutter and stacks everywhere and that drives me crazy, but I will get a system down eventually. Of course, it does not help that I packed up 1/2 of China and brought it back to xmas. Shopping was very fun over there!

Enjoy the new pics! Happy Holidays and I will continue to post with pics and updates to keep folks up to date on her progress.

P.S. Did I mention she is precious and I love her!!!!

Coming Home!

Hello,

This truly has been an amazing journey to both Isabell and China. Today we have our ceremony at the consulate and then we leave out first thing tomorrow morning. For those who can come and welcome Isabell home our flight comes into Mobile at 8:55 PM on Thursday night. It is a Northwest flight from Memphis (5934).

We will be home over the weekend and then leave on Tuesday for a few days at UAB to start to address the cleft palette surgery that hopefully will take place in January.

Love to all! See you at home! Martha, Isabell and Grandmary

Poop...It's a wonderful thing! Part Deux - The Silver Bullet

Well, constipation struck again. And my poor baby girl was having a hard time with it. So with my super mommy powers that have been bestowed on me this week, I once again put a supository where the sun don't shine. May I just reiterate that this activity is not for the faint of heart.

But the "Silver Bullet", as I like to call it, did its trick within 10 minutes and mommy did the "Poo-Step"! (Kind of like the 2-step only with much more groove in the hips.) Unfortunately, there was no cousin to our friend Frosty, my daughter had produced earlier. It was more like a lovely lump of clay. Followed shortly thereafter, by what Californian's call a mudd slide.

Crisis averted. Child back to sleeping and eating.

Mom went on a "retail shopping therapy" binge. Life is good. (Sleeping, showering and eating are highly overrated.)

Enjoy the pics of Isabell. I will not include any of the poop.

We are now in Guangzhou

Hi, sorry for being so long to post, but it has been a busy time. Yesterday, Isabell took her first flight in country. Thank goodness she was great. Drank apple juice the whole way and sleep part of the time. Mommy and Grandmary were very happy about that one. Our group was late getting to the airport so I took a crash course in getting a baby through security. Here's how it goes...strip baby, collapse stoller, throw back pack on conveyor belt, push Grandmary through, grab kid and all your stuff, get out to the way of others or you will be run over. Other than that it was fine. Here's a pic to prove it!

Now we are in Guangzhou and settled into the Holiday Inn. Last night we had dinner at "I Love Lucy's". Let's just say I was never so happy to see a plate of green veggies in all my life. After eating Burger King, McDonald's and KFC for a week, I just wanted some "real" food! Plus of course, Grandmary and I had a couple glasses of wine a nice Santa Rita.

After finishing our wine and getting back to the hotel, the three of us passed out for a good 10 hours of sleep. I have never been so tired and envigorated at the same time. Grandmary is doing really well helping Isabell and me in our new adventure. She has not killed me yet, although I must say she has had every right to as I holler out...."get a bottle, grab a rag, get diaper, no it's in that suitcase, make the bottle and finally pour the wine"!

Here are some sites around our hotel of the local market. One of the most amazing things to me is the dicotomy of the old and the new around us. The market sells rabbits, dogs, fishs, spices, and sack and sack of saffron.

A wonderfully fun occurance happened today, as we came up a bunch of school chilren learning English. My mother, the school teacher, loved it as they asked her to quiz them with questions they had written on paper.

The topper today was our visit the White Swan Hotel and the infamous red couch. Pat, our direct headed up a lovely Thanksgiving ceremony for the children and their parents. I have never been more thankful in all my life to have this wonderful, precious gift. Enjoy the pics! Sam is on the left and Cole on the right. Isabell has them eating out of the palm of her hand...such a girl.

I don't feel so good today.

Well, mom came all the way to China and all I got was this lousy c cold. How nice of her. The doctor here at the Mandarin Garden Hotel had to come and visit me. I am ok and luckily my mom brought some tylenol and antibiotics to help me. When you see her you might want to ask her if she ever thought about how she was going to feed me. She neglected to to bring any bottles, formula or rice cereal. Thank goodness there is a Walmart here or I would be starving.

But that is ok. I have learned to forgive her. She give me lots of hugs, kisses and even now feeds me. (I have a lot to teach her.)

Here are some more pictures of me today. My Grandmary went out to the market and bought me a new Chinese hat. More later. Love to all, Isabell

Poop...it's a wonderful thing!

Pooping. Not something I have thought about much, but I must say after the last 3 days it has been a hot topic in my life. Often times when the children come from the orphanages it takes 2 to 3 days for them to have poop. Well, Isabell, as one might say, was getting down to the 11th hour and mom was getting very upset that no poop appeared.

So, after giving her her first sepository. (May I just say that was a blast. Sticking a little slimmy thing up my poor daughters behind...not for the fain of heart. But, I did.) And being my daughter and one with some really personality what does she do? She just pooped it out a half hour later with NO poop attached.

Ok, so not one myself to give up or be defeated, and as I am learning she comes from the same ilk, I filled her up with juice to help promote a gastro explosion. No luck.

But today, after 10 hours of sleep lots of milk/cereal and juice, this morning she produced the most lovely, perfectly round piece of poop I have ever seen in my life. About the size of a small rubber bouncy ball. I was never so happy.

And as an extra added bonus a few hours later she produced a snowman of poop. Yes, a snowman. Three round balls of poop one smaller than the next right on top each other. Frosty would be so proud.

Poop. It is a wonderful thing. So keep it coming!

P.S. I will spare you all the pictures. But, I kid you not, they were perfect round balls of poop.

Getting to know Isabell An

Well we are on day 4 and here is what I know about my daughter...

• She is determined - sleep is not her thing (Ok, for all of you who know me you can laugh now. I know I will never sleep in again on a Saturday morning for a long time.)


• She is a thinker - she takes everything in and observes. She loves to play with her fingers and is now learning about toys and the sounds they make and how she can manipulate them.


• She is very curious - When we have gone on trips - like to the silk factory and walking around our hotel here in Nanjing - she is constantly looking around and taking it all in.


• Eating - this has been a challenge due to the cleft palette, but we are learning. I finally got some rice cereal in by mixing it with milk and making the bottle opening bigger. She does not naturally put things in her mouth. I don't think she hurts, but I think she if sensitive. She also may still be cutting some teeth. She has 5.


• She likes to play and when she laughs it is just about the cutest thing ever. Because of no palette it is this little kind of "huh-uh" sound that resonates.


• Bathing - we had our first true bath today. She took it with six rubber duckies and she loved the squeaky sound. She did not cry and that made mom real happy.

Well it is 10:30 a.m. here and we are trying to take our morning nap and guess who is crying? We cry with our eyes shut and we wind up and then wind down and wind up and wind down. I also think this is a time when she is going through some of her grieving process of leaving all she knows. That is the part that breaks my heart. This is a hard journey for her. Say a prayer for this sweet little angel. Thank you.

Here are some more pics of my Sweet Baby...

It is REALLY official - We are a FAMILY!

Enjoy the pics of the day! I made this little movie for Isabell about our official day. I am also including some pics of her sleeping...I have to enjoy this as last night she did not go to sleep till midnight! Oh how I will miss sleep.

The Best Day of My Life!

Well here she is...Isabell An Gallahue! The newest member of our family. More to come tomorrow on our adventures. We are exhausted but doing fine. Mom was the first one of our group up the Great Wall of China! Love to all!