Jenni's update

Sorry to be so long since last blog. Been updating everyone on Facebook so it is easy to forget to blog. Jenni is doing wonderful! She is now 2 and very smart and sassy! Let's see..in September she had her 2nd birthday, In October..mama and daddy had a trip to Hawaii and she got to have an adventure with her Auntie's and Uncles. Then there was Halloween. She did have to have a major surgery on Nov. 4th for her severe Reflux. So far it seems to be a great success!! yea! Her surgeons were awesome and her stay at the Children's Hospital was excellent. We are so thankful to everyone. She enjoyed Thanksgiving and being the center of attention for all of the family as she is the only child right now. She has had a fairly good winter as far illness goes. Just a few little runny noses and a slight cough. Nothing like last year at all. We are just so thankful! She is talking so much and it fun to have conversations with her. She is still just such a "gentle soul". She is really well-behaved. She will tell you NO a few times when she is mad that you ask her to stop doing something but she complies but just wants us to know that she is not happy about it. She is almost potty-trained all the way..part of it is our fault as we forget to ask her if she needs to go but if we stay "on top of it" she will have a dry diaper all day. She is getting excited for Christmas and already has a great LOVE for Santa!! I will try and download some pictures a bit later.

Terri

What has been happening in Jenni's life

Our sweet pea is almost 2 years old. Hard to believe! So grown up..almost fully potty trained. We plan on completing this task after we return from Hawaii in Oct. Mom and dad are taking a "work" trip to Hawaii for 9 days. Will be VERY hard leaving our little Jenni for so long but her Auntie's will be watching her and we know she will be in good hands. Jenni is talking so much and has really grown up so much in the last 2 months since our last post. She is like a "little woman" so mature and is now fully understanding every thing we say and I mean EVERYTHING! We have been having to start spelling things, hee, hee. She loves all outdoor activities and on rainy days home with mom and dad..she LOVES to watch her movies.

She is still having some digestive problems and does have Delayed Gastric Emptying Disease (which they hope she will outgrow) and they think reflux which will be confirmed this week with a scope. She really has very little desire to eat much of anything. It is really a constant battle. But she still seems to be thriving which is good sign so I need to not worry too much.

I am attaching some photos...I do have some video on Facebook.

Hugs,

Some pictures for Jenni Junkies

Finally, A Jenni update!

Sorry for such a delay in posting a Jenni Update. I have been spending much of my time on Facebook. It is such quick and easy to post updates on there. The past 2 months have been busy. Jenni's health hasn't been the best. Not anything bad just numerous ear infections and sinus infections. They decided to do a cat scan on her sinus cavity and she had almost total blockage of ALL sinuses. She had sinus surgery on June 12th. She also had her adneoids out and new tubes put in (her other ones fell out). They said she had alot of infection in there. Poor little thing. They think this is all caused from her Gastric Relux issue. So she had to see a Pediatric GI dr. We initially could not get an appt until Dec. 2009 but then got moved up to Sept. 2009. There is only 1 Ped GI Dr. in our city so very hard to get into. I prayed for God to find a way to get her in sooner. When I decided to call one more time to try and get her in earlier I found out one of my friends was now working there as a scheduler!! God answered our prayers. My friend put her on a short notice call list and she was seen last Wed. We loved the Dr! He is so nice and very informative. He thinks she may have something called Delayed Gastric Emptying which would explain why she is never hungry or eats just one or two bites and then says she is done. She had a full GI study of x-rays done last Friday and will have to have more tests done in about 2 weeks. In the meantime, she has another ear infection! The poor thing...Now we also have to do sinus rinses which she HATES. But if it keeps her from getting infections we will do it. We are tired of seeing her suffer. She also has lost weight again. However, I must say she is a real trooper. Hardly ever complains and plays hard. VERY BUSY!!

We also had our re-adoption hearing on June 19th so now we can get a birth certificate for her and a passport. We really want to go to Mexico in 2010. We are taking a trip to Hawaii first week in Oct. which will be the first time we have ever left Jenni. She will be staying home since it is a work convention. I have to admit I am stressing about leaving her. Even though she is so busy and tires me out everyday, I don't want leave her for even 1 night! She will be in good hands while we are gone. She is staying with her Aunties who will spoil her terribly. She probably won't even want to come back to us! Well, I have lots of pictures to download and once I do I will put they them on the blogs. Hugs to you all!

Terri

New Couch for Jenni!

We made a spur of the moment purchase at Babies R Us last week and it has been a great purchase for Jenni. It is a little Sesame Street Couch that folds out into a little bed. She LOVES it! She has been sick for 2 days and she loves to lay in her little bed with her "blankie and Pink Kitty" and watch her shows especially while not feeling well. She just looks so dang cute. I promise to get some pictures. The little bed also has a little zip up sleeping bag attached to it. She likes that too. I think it makes her feel grown up or something but I highly recommend it. It did cost us $45 but well worth it. We are planning to take it to the Auntie's houses when she stays over.

The adventures of Jenni LIn

Has it been 6 weeks since we last posted? Hard to believe. Life has been busy as always. I am happy to say Jenni is well at this point wooo hoo. She is just so busy and running around like a mad woman. The weather has been nice off and a few weeks ago we were able to go outside and play! Daddy bought Jenni a toy car to play in outside. Although it was a challenge to put together (had to get the neighbor to help with his "muscles") it was worth it! Jenni LOVES it!! She looks too cute driving around in it or having mommy push her around. She loves being outside and likes to run between our yard and our neighbors. If they don't pay attention to her she yells at the top of her lungs "HEY, HEY" (like pay attention to me. It is too cute as all the neighbors turn around to see who is yelling. She is now 19 months and sooo smart! I think the big thing is she is soo compassionate and it is so sweet. She has a little trouble at daycare as she is still so small and the other kids tend to pick on her. The daycare has to watch her carefully. Her personality is just so mild and meek when at daycare that I think the other little kids pick up on it and like to pick on her. Well, I thought I also give some cute pictures for you to enjoy!

Update on Jenni Lin

Can't believe it has been a month already since I have posted. I spend alot of time on Facebook updating about Jenni so I don't blog as often as I use to. She will be 18 months old on Tuesday. She has been really pretty healthy for the last month and actually eating much better although still very picky. She seems to be putting on weight finally and getting a little baby tummy on her.. it is too cute. Not much to update on Jenni except that she is defiantely my little independent toddler. I haven't downloaded any pictures for awhile as I lost my camera actually Jenni lost it :-). But I found it last weekend so I will try and take some updated pictures and download them. Jenni is very fond of saying NO all the time and actually answers your questions correctly which is fun. She seems to be very fond of all of her grandpa's she actually has a totally of 4. She calls them all "Papa". She still can be a bit stand offish with her grandmas takes awhile for her to warm up. I still think the "older woman" thing is because of her association with the nannies in China. She is walking and running well which is actually good as I found out I have a fracture and tendon tear in my left shoulder which will require surgery in the next month so it will be hard to lift her. I will try hard to download a couple of pictures this weekend.

Our baby is 17 months old!

My, where has the time gone? The wait to bring Jenni home seemed sooo long and sometimes impossible. Now, that we have her home the time is just zooming by. Jenni turned 17 months old on Feb. 24th. Our little peanut is becoming a real little person with ideas of her own. She is so compassionate and sweet yet at times so naughty. We do have to admit that about 90% of the time she really is a good little girl. She is very, very busy and VERY independent. She wants to do things herself. She won't allow us to feed her which sometimes is a messy event when she wants to feed herself yogurt or pudding. She has never been a big eater even in China. Food just doesn't seem to be very important to her even when she seems to be hungry. She is very slow eater and eats very lightly. I think she is just always going to be a petite little girl. We try and not FORCE food on her as we don't want eating issues later but the dr's worry about her low weight so try to encourage her to eat more whenever possible without "forcing" it on her. She is almost potty trained all of the way. She goes poo, poo on the toilet every time now unless she is sick but still has a hard time telling us when she has to go pee but we are working on it. We actually bought her some pull-ups this weekend. As it is easier to pull them off and on then a diaper. She jibbers alot but still only has about 10 distinguishable words and signs about 5 words. She still sleeps pretty well and really likes her 2 naps a day which is nice for mommy and daddy. I haven't taken any pictures lately as we have all been so sick for about the last 6 weeks but hopefully we can get some in the next week that I can download.

Jenni is healthy again!

We are all on the mend. Jenni is back to her old self and the meds they have her on for her reflux seems to being working. Mama is still sick but doing better. Jenni is just growing up so fast. She is communicating more and more with us. She was having some issues of wanting to sleep with us at night which Rich and I have to admit were enjoying but we know that she should be sleeping in her own crib. We had her sleeping with us when she was so sick (the dr recommended it). She did sleep in her own crib last night so hopefully we are going to be doing that more often. I think we all sleep better when she is in her own crib. She will be 17 months old on Tuesday. She is just so smart and her daycare says she is just the best child while she is there. Very sensitive and sweet to all the other children. We worried about how she interacts with the other kids as she is a bit spoiled in our household but they say she shares toys and shows compassion when another child is upset. She follows commands and they very seldom have to scold her. She is just a good girl. I guess we have to feel really lucky as some kids are a bit more of a rebel but we normally only have to tell her no once and she compiles. Hopefully she will be like that when she is teenager! Well, just wanted to update everyone on Jenni as I know some of you were pretty worried about her but she seems to back to her old self!

Our poor sick baby

Boy, has it been a rough couple of weeks with illnesses. Poor Jenni she has just been plagued with all sorts of minor illnesses since we brought her home from China. This last Sunday was the scariest. She had a bad cold about 2 weeks ago but seemed to get better. But then Mama got the cold which I have been fighting off now for 3 weeks. Dada also has it. It is just miserable. Well, Jenni than was exposed to RSV at daycare. So last weekend she had a high fever and was wheezing so we took her to the ER and sure enough she not only had RSV but Pneumonia and an ear infection. So after 7 hours in the ER and poor Jenni being tortured in every way possible with tests, x-rays and breathing treatments they decided to admit her to the hospital. Boy, was that a long night! Jenni would have nothing to do with the crib in her room( which I think resembled the one she probably had in China). So, I had to sit up in a chair holding her all night. She refused to sleep and just cried either at the top of her lungs or this low sad cry. There was nothing I could do to calm her which broke my heart. It was heart wrenching to have her be so upset. She just didn't understand why all of these people were being mean (even though they were just trying to help her) to her. They were all "suited" up with masks, gloves, gowns etc. as she was so sick and contagious. So it really scared her. I hope to never have to do that again. I hated putting her though all of that. The nurses and the doctors were just so great and understanding of Jenni unwillingness to cooperate. It is kind of sad as Jenni use to be so good at the doctors offices and did really well when she had ear tubes in. And now I am afraid that she not be as cooperative as before and I can't blame her. I.V.'s, a catheter (can you say owww?), having her ears and nose cleaned out and breathing treatments. It made Mama and Dada tired and anxious but we both handled it really well and never showed our fear or sadness to Jenni. We tried remain calm which can be hard for first time parents.

So the Pediatricians at the hospital have confirmed that Jenni does have severe GERD (Reflux) and needs to see a specialist and have more tests done. The doctors think this why she has so many respiratory issues. They wanted to do the tests in hospital but that would have required another night in the hospital and Dada and I decided to not put Jenni through more "torture" until she was over the Pneumonia and not so worked up. She is doing much better today although still has a cough. Dada rearranged his work schedule to stay home with her Tuesday and Wednesday and my sister watched her today. I just want to really thank everyone at my work especially my boss for being so understanding this last week. Not only have they been so understanding of my need to have time off to be with Jenni but I also have been so sick with bronchitis and worrying about my baby that I am sure I am not performing my duties at 110% (which I try and do!). Well here is to a better next week. And please pray for Jenni to be well once again and for the doctors to be able to help her GERD so she won't be so sick. Oh, yeah and an extra prayer for mama and dada to get well also so we can take good care of our baby girl!

Terri

I love when daddy comes home from work!

My daddy is so funny!

7 Months of Bliss

Can't believe we have been home with Jenni for almost 7 months. My where has the time gone. Our previous life just doesn't seem like it even existed before. How boring we were. I now so admire a few minutes just to blog. I now go to bed much earlier than before. I still would rather be a night owl but in order to keep up with Miss Jenni I must try and sleep at night when she does just in case she wakes in the night. She once again is sick but this time it is the full and icky flu. All symptoms have been exhibited for the last 6 days and the worst in the last two days. But nothing to worry about just another "daycare sickness". Oh, well at least she is getting it out of the way while she young. Hopefully, building up her immune system. She actually has been doing really good for about month..ever since she got tubes in her ears things have been better as far as colds, etc. The ENT says Jenni's tubes look good and her hearing has returned to normal..actually "above normal". So we are very pleased. She did so good through all of the hearing tests and cooperated so well. I was very proud. Jenni still only has 8 teeth so I am sure we will have some cranky days in the future when she is teething. We did have our 6 month social worker visit on Sunday. It went really well and even though Jenni didn't feel very good she behaved so good and showed off all of her "talents" to Nora. Glad to have that visit done. We have to have one more follow up visit in June and then that should be it for what China requires. We are also starting the re-adoption process for Washington State in April. We would do it sooner but our attorney just had a baby girl! We are so happy for her and her husband. They now have 2 beautiful girls. Even though our Federal Government legally sees Jenni as ours we don't have a U.S. Birth Certificate which comes in handy for when she goes to school and needs a passport so we need to "re-adopt" her in order to get the birth certificate. Well, better go our princess needs my attention!

Hugs

Jenni is loved!

2009 Here we come!

The year of 2008 has come and gone. It had many happy moments for our household and many challenging and difficult times for our country but we have a new President and a hope for these bad times to get much better and a hope that our country learned from our mistakes. I do have to admit that Obama brings our family great hope for a "change" in our country's attitude. Our country is so behind many other countries when it comes to racial diversity. Now that we have an Asian daughter we are made even more aware of the immense prejudices that still exists in our country. We love the city we live in but it is very conservative and very little racial diversity but we do know that it is changing everyday and any prejudice that may still be present here will hopefully soon disappear with time. People just need to remember that none of our ancestors (except the Indians) actually came from the U.S. so we are all in one way or another an descendent of an immigrant. People still feel it is their right to question us on why we would adopt from China and not from the U.S. but that is whole another blog but I can tell you we know with all of our heart that Jenni was meant to be our daughter and she was living in China and that is where we had to go to bring her home.

Jenni had a wonderful Christmas as did we. We have had immense amount of snow (more 60 inches)in this last month so we have spent most of our last 2 weeks "digging out". Mama fell down our basement stairs and injured her hip and back. No broken bones but very sore. Each day she is feeling better and better. Jenni enjoyed having mama home with her over the holiday and seems to have "grown up" so much while having mama home. She understands more and more of what you ask of her and is very sweet and nurturing. She is just so smart! She fights to stay awake as long as she can as she just doesn't want to miss anything important. She actually stayed awake until midnight last night! She minds fairly well but seems to have selective hearing when she wants to. We have to say June 16th, 2008 our life changed forever and we are just so happy and in love with our little girl. Have a Happy, healthy and wealthy 2009. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!