It's been a month since Shania's surgery. She is doing extremely well -- according to her doctors. Right now, she's laying on the bed sleeping and snoring! Yes, she's a snorer!
Life's been interesting for the past month. Living in one room in the house is hard. Essentially, the only times I leave the living room are to either eat lunch/dinner or to go to the bathroom. Otherwise, I sit here with the laptop and, at times, my steno machine.
Both Bob and I are sore from having to climb out of bed everyday. Since we moved our bed mattress into the living room, it's just laying on the floor. Our "old bodies" are not accustomed to having to climb off the floor so much. Not only do we sleep on the bed but these days, it's acting as our "couch" as well, so if you're not sitting at the hightop eating or in the rocker surfing, you're on the bed.
Shania's incisions are healing very nicely. Thankfully, we didn't have a problem with infections and she was really good about not licking them. The incision on her knee is completely healed -- the scab has fallen off and you can hardly see it. The one on her hip still has some scabs on it but it also looks very good. And I'm happy to say that her hair is starting to grow back. At first, though, it looked as if she were dirty in spots but once you look close, you can see it's her hair growing back. It'll be a while before her skin is covered but we're well on our way!
She's also starting to feel more like herself. This is evident when we go outside. She wants so badly to run to catch the squirrel on the fence or the bird in the tree. We went outside yesterday morning and I didn't notice the squirrel on the fence, but Shania did. Luckily, I was quick enough to grab the leash otherwise we would have been chasing the squirrel!
She's also trying to run around in the house -- we've added more blue tiles to the floor in the kitchen so she has more room. When she gets excited, rather than walk (as we all know) Shania runs. Trying to get her to calm down is hard but we manage.
As for other life updates, there really aren't many. I've finally passed all my 160 tests, so that's progress in school. I also got a 100 on my first test in Legal Procedures. There's nothing new on the adoption front. It's time to start updating our USCIS paperwork. I'll work on that tomorrow probably.
We're also looking into possibly doing a "Plan B" domestic adoption. What I mean by Plan B is rather than spending all that money (which we don't have because of China) to use an agency, we'll try to get the word out that we're looking to adopt through a mailing campaign and/or posting something on the internet. We haven't really done anything with this yet so we'll see what happens.
Well, I guess that's about all for now.
Faith
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Shania Update
Shania went in for her surgery on Wednesday. That evening, Dr. Marino called to say that all went well. On Thursday morning, we received a call saying that she was doing well. The incision site looked go (no infection), her leg was swollen from the surgery which was to be expected and she was being fed fluids and medication through an IV. They were also going to give her lunch.
Yesterday (Friday), the doctor called to say she was doing "remarkably well". In his opinion, she was starting to feel better because she wagged her tail and raised her head when he went over to check her out. The incision site was still looking nice, she had eaten a little bit the day before and was doing great. They had also tried getting her up to take a walk. She is walking on three legs right now holding up the left leg -- not to worry, he said this is perfectly normal. It will probably be 2 or 3 days before she tries to use the leg.
We are now sitting here anxiously awaiting his call today to tell us that she's well enough to come home. We've completely renovated the living room to make it Shania's room. We were told that she'll have to be confined to one room in the house during her recovery. We put down some blue foam tiles on the floor so she won't slide around, we moved the couches and chair out so we had room to bring in my rocker with it's ottoman, the hightop table with chairs for eating, and a friend of Bob's offered their Aerobed so we could all sleep in there! We also brought in Shania's bed and her mattress from the bed by the front window (which she won't be able to look out for some time) and her food dish. It's all very cozy!
I'll post more when I know more.
Faith
Yesterday (Friday), the doctor called to say she was doing "remarkably well". In his opinion, she was starting to feel better because she wagged her tail and raised her head when he went over to check her out. The incision site was still looking nice, she had eaten a little bit the day before and was doing great. They had also tried getting her up to take a walk. She is walking on three legs right now holding up the left leg -- not to worry, he said this is perfectly normal. It will probably be 2 or 3 days before she tries to use the leg.
We are now sitting here anxiously awaiting his call today to tell us that she's well enough to come home. We've completely renovated the living room to make it Shania's room. We were told that she'll have to be confined to one room in the house during her recovery. We put down some blue foam tiles on the floor so she won't slide around, we moved the couches and chair out so we had room to bring in my rocker with it's ottoman, the hightop table with chairs for eating, and a friend of Bob's offered their Aerobed so we could all sleep in there! We also brought in Shania's bed and her mattress from the bed by the front window (which she won't be able to look out for some time) and her food dish. It's all very cozy!
I'll post more when I know more.
Faith
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Latest Information from CHSFS
We took part in a conference call with our agency on January 31 regarding the status of the wait for China adoptions. According to the way things have been progressing with CCAA, it looks like we'll have to wait an additional 4 or 5 years to bring our daughter home.
This is based on the current way dossiers are being processed. As of the call, the CCAA had matched dossiers with LIDs of 12/19/05. If you calculate how many weeks are between 12/19/05 and our current log-in date (01/11/07), then divide by 12, you come up with this horrible wait time.
With these latest developments, Bob and I are now faced with a decision -- what to do. We could sit it out and wait, we could dual list with another country, we could do a concurrent listing, or we could withdraw our application entirely. The thought of dual listing had some appeal to us until we spoke with personnel at CHSFS. We will only be able to transfer a small amount of money from the China program to the new country, plus we'll incur the costs of the new country. In most cases, those new costs will range between $25,000 and $35,000 ~~ and this is in addition to all the money we've already laid out for China.
At this point, we have no clue what we're going to do. We actually just updated our homestudy and our CIS approval will be expiring in a few months so we'll have to figure out which way we're heading so we know what to do going forward.
Well, I'm at school and class will be starting in a few minutes so I'm going to end off here for now. I'll keep updating the blog as we figure things out.
Faith
This is based on the current way dossiers are being processed. As of the call, the CCAA had matched dossiers with LIDs of 12/19/05. If you calculate how many weeks are between 12/19/05 and our current log-in date (01/11/07), then divide by 12, you come up with this horrible wait time.
With these latest developments, Bob and I are now faced with a decision -- what to do. We could sit it out and wait, we could dual list with another country, we could do a concurrent listing, or we could withdraw our application entirely. The thought of dual listing had some appeal to us until we spoke with personnel at CHSFS. We will only be able to transfer a small amount of money from the China program to the new country, plus we'll incur the costs of the new country. In most cases, those new costs will range between $25,000 and $35,000 ~~ and this is in addition to all the money we've already laid out for China.
At this point, we have no clue what we're going to do. We actually just updated our homestudy and our CIS approval will be expiring in a few months so we'll have to figure out which way we're heading so we know what to do going forward.
Well, I'm at school and class will be starting in a few minutes so I'm going to end off here for now. I'll keep updating the blog as we figure things out.
Faith
Friday, January 11, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy New Year everyone!
We hope that 2008 is a fantastic year for all!
Well, a lot has happend since my last post so I'll get right to it ~~
Christmas has come and gone. As usual, Santa was awesome again this year. I don't know how he out-does himself every year but he seems to get the perfect gifts for me all the time! I hope that Mrs. Claus did as well in her gift giving.
We spent Christmas Eve with Bob's family. Kyla loved her new Princess Castle that we bought her and Keira even enjoyed the box it came in! Who knew that was all we could get for her and she'd be happy? :o) Mike and Jill were unable to make it down for Christmas Eve so I didn't get to see them.
Christmas Day was spent with my family. It was really nice this year because Michelle and Bubs made the trip up so we were all together. Let's not forget that Jimmy and Diane were here as well ~~ they are part of this family too, ya know! We had a full house and a living room full of gifts. Once gifts were done, we headed to the dinner table where the turkey was a hit. Even my sweet potatoes (or yams, whichever you wish to call them) which were late in arriving at the table due to "technical difficulties" turned out pretty good ~ if I do say so myself!
After dinner, Bob headed back to his mom's to see Mike, Jill, Kevin, and Haley while I stayed home with my family.
New Years Eve was a quiet one. We did our usual ~~ small hor dourves instead of dinner and a marathon of "Lost" to catch up for the start of the new season. We almost didn't get to see the ball drop because we were so engrossed in the marathon. Bob got the TV switched over in time to see the last 6 seconds of 2007 tick away!
I've finally left my job at CFCD (Yay). What a relief it was!! My last day there was January 4. Now I'm able to concentrate 100% on school. I started going to both the day and my regular night classes starting on January 7. My goal is to get the rest of the tests I need to get out of the 160-180 class by the end of the semester (January 25.) Wish me luck!
Bob has also been wonderful in agreeing to let me go to school during the day next semester. Hopefully, the move will give me the boost I need to finish school. I only have 2 academic classes, 2 labs, and one more speed class to graduate.
My niece, Keira, celebrated her first birthday this past Tuesday. We'll be going to her birthday party tomorrow afternoon!
Today (January 11) is the one-year anniversary of our Log-In date with CCAA. The hope is that by this time next year (yes, January 2009) we'll be in China bringing our little baby girl home where she belongs ~~ to her forever family!
I've met a woman on the Yahoo message board that lives right here in Ronkonkoma and is adopting from China. She also told me there are 2 other families right in our neighborhood that are adopting as well. It's exciting to hear of other families going through the same experience as us who live nearby. Perhaps one day I'll get to meet these families.
Well, I guess that's enough for now. I really have to get back to practicing!
Again, Happy New Year to Everyone!
Faith
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