Bubble Wrap fun and first Grizzly ride.

We received a package yesterday and I now know what I'm getting Sarah for Christmas. Bubble Wrap. She played with it all day yesterday, even making a dress out of it with a little help from Me. I missed getting a photo of that. This morning she continued coming up with more uses, making a fashion accessory out of it.

I haven't had the Yamaha Grizzly out since earlier in the summer, so this evening I fired it up and took Isaac and Sarah for a ride while Me took some photos from the front porch. Sarah had ridden on the motorbikes in Vietnam, so this was pretty tame for her since there wasn't any traffic to contend with.

A visit to Pat's.

After a slight setback yesterday morning of getting up at 4 a.m., Sarah slept until 7 a.m. this morning and is also on her normal nap schedule of around 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Life is good. Sarah also asked to go for another walk this morning, so Ba loaded her up in the stroller and off we went. She did great and we made it to the end of the mile-long road and half-way back before she said Me once. This afternoon, we all picked up Isaac from school and headed to Pat's Family Hair Care Center. Isaac needed a haircut and Sarah was needing a trim. She sat on Me's lap and gave Robin plenty of smiles. She enjoyed her first American haircut and the roll of Smarties didn't hurt.

A Full Nights Sleep and Getting Ready for Ba's Return to Work

Posted by Momma (Me, pronounced may):
Me and Ba are so happy to report that Sarah slept through the entire night! We even had a bedtime without tears as she has been so tired that she cries when it is time to go to bed. Until now Sarah has only slept for four hour intervals and we have all been pretty worn out, not that we don't enjoy the midnight ( and 3am) play times. This is especially great for Ba who has been putting up with the grumpy, sleep-deprived Me. Isaac has also adjusted and is sleeping through the night so hopefully we can resume some kind of schedule. We are thankful for everyone's patience as we make all of these transitions with Sarah. We know how eager everyone is to meet her, but with the huge adjustments Sarah has had to make, we have been keeping everything pretty quiet here.

We also had Ba take Isaac to school while Sarah and I stayed home. We have done this for two mornings now and she was tearful at first but handled it well. Ba called Sarah on the phone to tell her he was on his way back and she really liked that! We want her to be prepared for when we resume our work schedules. Her separation anxiety is improving and she seems to be doing great. A whole lot of thanks to the International Adoption Center at Children's Hospital and to our agency CHI for suggestions on all of these transitions. They really helped!

Posted by Dad (Ba);
And I just returned with Sarah from a little walk in the neighborhood. We had went in the garage for a minute and she pointed outside. I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and pointed to her stroller. She gave me her familiar head nod, so I put her shoes and a sweater on and off we went without momma. As we rounded the end of our 300-ft.-long driveway, where the trees block the view of the house, she got a little apprehensive. After some reassurance, we kept going. Sarah said Me a couple of different times. I told her Me was taking a shower and we would see her soon. She was content with that and we made it nearly a half mile down the road before she wanted to return. That's the furthest she's been from mom since coming home.

Some daddy time this morning.

Sarah is slowly getting her sleep schedule rearranged. She has been so tired at times though, she gets upset and cries uncontrollably when it's time for bed. She did that last night around 8 p.m. when we put her to bed, but she actually slept until around 3 a.m. Seven hours! She hasn't slept that long at night since we were in Vietnam. And this morning we started making the adjustment for next Monday when dad has to return to work. When her brother returned to school last week, the whole family had been dropping him off in the morning and dad usually picked him up while Sarah was sleeping. This morning, we said our goodbyes and gave our reassurances, and dad headed out to take Isaac to school while Sarah stayed home with mom. As expected, Sarah cried for awhile as mom reassured her that ba would return. It's a short trip to the school and back and when I was on the way home, I called mom's cell phone. Sarah wasn't crying and talked to me on the phone. I told her I was coming home and a few minutes later, she saw me come back. More baby steps. Now mom is catching up on some sleep and Sarah and I are watching Elmo, playing with her hair, taking photos and posting to the blog. It's quite difficult to type with an active 4-year-old on your lap.Sarah's sense of humor showing. She didn't want me to help with her hair and was trying to make it look silly.






Sarah reviewing the photos in her album again.
Playing with Skippy and the curtains.
Dad was goofing with Sarah's shirt on his head and she insisted on taking a photo with a little assistance from dad.

Having some fun on Saturday at home.

Sarah and Isaac enjoyed some nice weather today, using a syringe to spray water for Skippy to chase. It's hard to tell what the temperature was, with Isaac shirtless and Sarah in a jacket.
Make sure you click on this first photo to enlarge it. I've never seen Skippy look so vicious.

Still getting up with the chickens.

Just a quick post to throw up a photo from 4:20 a.m. this morning. Mom took this of the kids on the couch spending some quality time together while dad was still trying to sleep. Isaac is slowly getting back to normal. He was actually able to stay up until 8:30 tonight before he was just too tired and had to got to bed.
We are really excited about another local family from the St. Louis area who left today to travel to the same orphanage that Sarah lived in to pick up their boys, who are brothers and are 3 and 5-years-old. We met the mother, Gina, Monday at CHI and posted a photo in an earlier post. They have had to wait a ridiculously long time to travel after receiving their referral back in January. You can check out their adoption blog here, Five In The Hive. And they have a separate blog for their trip to Vietnam here, The Best Is Yet To Come. I posted a video of the boys I took while we were there last month. Check it out here, Video of Sam and Eli. We can't wait to see the boys after they return.

Adjusting, appointments and Mai Lee restaurant.

We continue to adjust to being back home and Sarah continues to become more and more comfortable with her family and everything new around her including our dogs. The sleep is still erratic. Sarah only slept from about 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. this morning after a rather long nap yesterday. We then had to head to another appointment this morning which kept her up for much of the day, but she was a real trooper as usual. She was evaluated by the International Adoption Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital and as we already knew, she is doing great. After the MD checked Sarah, she had a hearing test, a psychology consultation and an occupational therapy evaluation. She was very cheerful and cooperative through out the morning. On a recommendation from the MD, we ate lunch at Mai Lee, the original Vietnamese restaurant in St. Louis. It's located on Delmar in University City and the food was great. Sarah was able to speak to a few people there in Vietnamese and her face just lit up.Sarah has no problem with her photo being taken, but was acting silly last night and kept spinning around to try to prevent ba from getting a good shot.
Sarah keeping an eye on our "demon dogs". ;-)
Looking at her brother's Yu-Gi-Oh! card carry case.
I love profile shots.
Sarah laughs at the photo of herself on my phone.
Hello Skippy.
Sarah still gets upset at times when the dogs get too close, but she is more consistently spending time closer to them.
As busy as Sarah and the dogs are, sometimes it takes a helping hand to get a photo before somebody moves.

Looking awfully happy at 5:30 a.m. after getting up around 2 a.m.
Goofing around with the doctor kit at the International Adoption Center with a friend who came along with us.
Having fun during the OT eval.

The OT was impressed by Sarah's scissoring ability. We're not sure if she ever used a scissors at the orphanage or not.

Five In The Hive, CHI, MDs and finally some sleep.

Sarah had an MD appointment today at St. Louis Children's Hospital, so we stopped by our adoption agency's offices in St. Louis for a visit before heading to her appointment. While we were there, another CHI mom, who is about to travel, happened to drop by and I was able to personally deliver the discs I was going to mail to her with all the photos and a video of her two boys that we had taken on our recent trip. Gina is the mother of Sam and Eli, of Five In The Hive fame. She was extremely warm and welcoming to our family and we will be getting our children together for a visit just as soon as their family is up to it after their return. They leave on Friday and will be taking the exact same flights as we flew. Good luck and make sure to drink plenty of fluids before, during and after the flights. Isaac's swelling is nearly gone, but we don't want to hear about any mishaps involving the Five In The Hive crew.

Our schedule today may help everyone get back on a central time zone schedule. Isaac had been up since around 3 a.m. and Sarah slept from about 11 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and then again for a short time just before it was time to get up for the day. We were gone all day, Sarah catching a short catnap in the exam room and both children sleeping on the hour ride home. Isaac then crashed just after we returned home around 6 p.m. Sarah actually woke up totally when we got home and didn't go to bed until almost 9 p.m. I don't know how she did it. She was just so tired this afternoon. We are hoping they both sleep through the night, especially Isaac since he will be returning to school tomorrow. I will be turning in when I finish with this entry. Kelly is getting some much deserved sleep also.Sarah and Kelly with Nicky, CHI Vietnam Program Director, and Nichole, our social worker. Thank you to both Nicky and Nichole and everyone at CHI who helped bring our family's newest member home to us. And a special thank you goes to the in-country staff, who are so caring, hard working and genuinely loved by the children they work with at the orphanage where Sarah lived. It definitely shows and we could see how much Sarah meant to them and how much they will miss her.
Gina of Five In The Hive. It was a pleasure meeting you today and we are praying that your trip goes as smoothly as our's and that we can see Sam and Eli again very soon.