Happy New Year!

Wow, it has been a really long week or so since I last posted. We had a very nice Christmas, quite relaxed and peaceful. We had a great time with Tom, Judy, Michael and Bob at their house for Christmas dinner, games for the kids and reminiscing for the adults. The dinner was delicious, Michael!


The big news of the day is that our agency called yesterday morning to let us know that travel approval has arrived from China!! This is almost the last piece of the puzzle. We now await only the U.S. Consulate appointment which is the last thing step for Ailah to become an American citizen before we leave China. The agency has requested this appointment and hopes to have confirmation by Thursday. If all goes as planned they would like for us to leave for China the following Thursday, January 10. We've hoped to go a few days early to do some sight seeing in Hong Kong before flying into Guangzhou for the remainder of our time in China. (We're considering a day at Hong Kong Disneyland. I know, what a shock, huh?) If we do that we may be leaving as early as a week from today! Yipes, what am I doing sitting here? I've got a million things to do before then.


We have been praying for wisdom and guidance on how to proceed considering the health update on Ailah. It took some of the "merry" out of Christmas and was heavily on our hearts and minds. All of us had come to the conclusion that God had a reason for giving us this particular child's referral, we all love her so much already and it didn't seem plausible to even consider not bringing her home. So despite our continuing concerns about her future health needs, once we got that call yesterday morning from CCAI we knew we were fully committed to making her our daughter.


So, in God's usual style, as soon as we made that final decision, out loud to each other, we began to get confirmation that we've made the correct decision. We've still been unable to get any information from the SWI and the doctor that made the diagnosis. And up until late yesterday we were feeling very frustrated trying to get information from any doctors here. Our family doctor, who may not remain that for much longer, was distinctly uninterested in the whole situation and pretty much brushed us off. With the holidays and their accompanying long weekends, we had trouble even finding anyone in the office much less willing to be forthcoming with information. Finally, last Friday, Jeff decided to e-mail the entire body of info that we have to the Denver Children's Hospital International Adoption Clinic with an urgent plea for help. (We'd been told Thursday that they wouldn't have time to look at our file until the 10th.) At the same time he sent a similar request to the pediatric oncologist/orthopedic surgeon who took care of Kelsey. We had a very good relationship with him throughout her illness, we respect his opinion greatly and we trust him to be scrupulously and painfully honest with us.

About 3 p.m. yesterday, the doctor from Children's called, even though he is on vacation and was home with his family. He talked us through her entire file in great detail. This very kind man took over an hour to share all his thoughts and answer our questions. He said a) she is really cute, b) while her diagnosis is probably more than an easy fix, he doesn't foresee a situation that isn't manageable/treatable, c) sees her life expectancy to be normal, d) gave us a list of questions to ask and tests to request should we get that opportunity and e) made suggestions for her transition from the orphanage to our hotel room to the U.S. in terms of continuing her medications. Of course there were the usual caveats about how it is hard to be sure without further tests, but he was ultimately very positive about her future health.

About an hour after this phone call, we got a call from Kelsey's doctor. He was extremely upbeat about Ailah's file and after looking through all of it and examining her pictures, he felt that we should feel very comfortable about being able to handle anything that might need medical attention. One of our concerns was the way Ailah is holding her left foot in each of her pictures as it looked like there might be an inward turn and the toes are always spread. He said this doesn't look like anything but just the way she likes to sit. Good to hear from an orthopedist. (And that opinion was voiced by the first doctor as well.) Oh, and he too said she is very cute. We really didn't need confirmation on that but, of course, a parent always loves to hear that kind of thing.


We want to thank everyone who has been praying and giving us concrete support and advice throughout the last 10 days. We can't tell you how blessed we feel to have the body of friends and family that we do. Thanks to suggestions from different people, we feel we will have no problem lining up a good pediatrician before we leave. (Waiting for people to be back in the office so we can make appointments.) We've always trusted our family doctor but under the circumstances we've decided we better find a specialist to help deal with all of this.


We also want to give kudos to Denver Children's Hospital and the IA clinic there. Those of you that have known us for awhile, know that in the past we've had little use for this hospital. Their attitudes and treatment of our family during the time Kelsey had to stay there was, in our opinion, ghastly. They have partially redeemed themselves in our minds and hearts and we feel much more comfortable seeking help for Ailah there should that be necessary.


I can't promise to do very well keeping up between now and our departure. I'll try to get the facts down here so you all know what is going on. While we're in China we want to keep this as a log for ourselves as well as for everyone who is interested to follow our journey. Wow, I just can't believe we are finally getting ready to go to China!!!!


HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!


Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to add these. We received these updated photos of Ailah last week and I've been meaning to put them on here since. They were taken around the 14th of Dec. we think. Still cute!