We're Home
May 2008  |  July 2008

Monday, May 26, 2008 WE'RE HOME . . . FINALLY! Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:21-23 To say that our journey home and the first few days have been a little crazy would be an understatement. It’s a long story but for posterity’s sake I will tell it! Our journey home began on May 15th. We left our hotel at 3 p.m. and headed for the Consulate’s Office. Here we made our oath to never abandon Hannah and to promise to take care of her. Then we picked up her Visa and headed to the airport. We and one other family were scheduled to leave Guangzhou at 8 p.m. and land in Beijing at 11 p.m. When we got through security and to our gate we realized that Hannah’s fever was returning. Since we weren’t allowed to bring ANY liquids onto the plane due to China’s new security policies, we had nothing to give her. On the flight she began to get extremely agitated as her fever continued to climb. We finally landed in Beijing, gave her some medicine and made it to our hotel at 1 a.m. She slept until 7 a.m. when we had to leave for the airport again. Since we were flying internationally we were able to carry on some medicines so I packed a small amount of Tylenol and Ibuprofen for the journey home. While we were waiting for our plane in Beijing she began to cough again. The long Trans-Pacific flight was actually pretty bearable. She slept about 3.5 hours (keep in mind how little she had slept the two nights before we left) but was really happy. Her fever would go up and down but we just kept the meds coming. We landed in San Francisco and went through the dreaded Customs and then had to go back through security for our flight to Dallas. Hannah was happy and playful in the airport even though her fever was still there. We got on the flight to Dallas and it felt like it would never take off. During this time Hannah started to become really irritable and unsettled. She was obviously exhausted but was having a hard time sleeping. She would doze off and then wake up screaming. Hind sight being 20/20 we now realize that she was probably having hard time breathing. (Yes, we’re both medical people but you would be amazed at how much you second-guess yourself when it’s your own child). When we finally landed in Dallas we were so relieved. Both of us were dying to see our other kids and our family but were also worried about Hannah. We knew we just wanted to get her home because we had all of the medications there that she needed. Needless to say our homecoming was not what we had dreamed it would be. Oh, we had quite the greeting committee (thank you to everyone who made it to the airport…we will never forget it) but we were so preoccupied with her health that it was hard to concentrate. Of course we both were so relieved to finally have our hands on Hollyn and Noah and they were just as thrilled to see us. We headed home and had a wonderful meal of roast, mashed potatoes, salad and bread….yummy. Hannah perked up a bit and just sat there wide-eyed at all the activity that goes on in our household. Well, long story short, we were home for about 36 hours when we finally gave up on trying to treat Hannah’s illness ourselves. We took her to the ER early Sunday morning and were admitted that afternoon. We were in the hospital with Hannah for about 5 days while she got necessary therapy for her respiratory illness. Her hospitalization was really a blessing in disguise and it was another reminder of how God is really in the details. Before we left we chose a cardiologist that was recommended to us and we had him review her file. He told us to just call and make an appointment when we got back into the US. Also, I had been a little worried that I had not made arrangements to have her seen by an International Adoption Pediatrician. Well when we got to the hospital we found out that our cardiologist had just started his week of being the guy on-call. It was awesome because he was already aware of her story and was the primary doctor on her case while we were hospitalized. He also got an Infectious Disease doctor on board since she had just arrived from another country and this amazing woman ordered all the necessary lab work that Hannah would need. Basically we got everything taken care of in that one hospital stay that would have taken us weeks. Hannah is doing much better and the great news is that her heart is responding to treatment.

These little feet on this ground mean our girl is an American! Hollyn's awesome sign for our Homecoming Our amazing Welcoming Committee! Oh Happy Day! This is not how I imagined our first family picture to turn out...but we love it anyway! My three goof-balls ready for church!

Hollyn AND Noah are responding so well to Hannah. I expected this from Hollyn since she has eagerly awaited her arrival since the day we said we were going to adopt. But Noah….we were a little worried about this. So far, he’s been great. He talks to her, laughs about her and will occasionally yell at her when she’s taken his toy….all very normal brotherly stuff. Hollyn has been great too, especially since she’s been on the receiving end of Hannah’s pinches now. She’s been patient (more patient than her Mommy) with her and is helping us to teach her what “gentle hands” are. She loves Hannah so much and can’t wait for her to wake up every morning. I’ll be honest, for a few days while we were in China and after we got home I was having a hard time hearing from God. I told my sister to tell everyone to pray because I didn’t have the words anymore. But we serve a God who never leaves us and He showed Himself over and over during our stressful time. His Mercies ARE new every morning! I’ve also been worried how this hospital stay would affect Hannah’s attachment but I think it may have actually helped it (another God thing). We were the only familiar faces amongst all these people poking and prodding her. She has actually reached for me more than she’s reached for Matt. I’m certain we have more work to do in regards to this but we are so thankful that she sees us as comforters and protectors. We are so happy to see the Hannah we came to know in China emerging again after her terrible illness. She was so puny for so many days that seeing her smile melts our hearts. She’s an amazingly resilient child with so much joy. Matt and I have said many times that we are so thankful to her birth mother for giving her life but we are also so thankful to her foster mom for teaching her happiness. The love that both of these women had for her is so very evident in her personality. We also are eternally grateful to God for protecting her and getting her to us at the perfect time so we could get her the help she needed. We’ll be back soon to update on how Hannah is healing and how our life as a family of five is shaping up!

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