Life is great!

Thursday will be a month that we have been home. And things are going great! Ava has blended right in with our family. It's as if she was supposed to be with us. She is very observant and alert. Always taking everything in. She continues to sleep good at night and now is starting on a regular nap schedule during the day. She is over her HepA. She was mostly over it by the time we came home. The boys still think she's great. Nate said yesterday that this is going to be the best Christmas yet. Hard to believe it's next week already.

My biggest challenge has been trying to get my work done. Mark is still working part time, mornings, so I work when she naps in the morning. Then when Mark gets home, he takes over the parenting duties and I can work for the afternoon. It doesn't seem to be quite enough, so I sometimes work after they have gone to bed. She just started taking a couple hour morning nap, so that has helped.

We're so looking forward to getting together with family and friends over the holidays.

Ava is doing great!

Ava is doing great! Even though she tested positive for HepA, you would never know it by her actions. She certainly doesn't act like she's sick. She's a happy, good natured baby. She sleeps 10-12 hours/night, which Mark and I are really enjoying.

She has really bonded with our family. At the end of November, we went to a family get together. Of course, everyone wanted to hold her, but she wasn't thinking the same thing. Whenever anyone else held her, she just cried. Then Mark or I would hold her and she would settle down. Again, this past weekend, we went to a holiday party, where she met some more people for the first time. And if anyone picked her up, or got too close looking at her, she would cry. She would look for Mark or I.

I'm really enjoying having a baby again. The boys are great with her. And even the dog is gentle. One day I had her on a blanket on the floor, and Cody lay down on the corner of it.

Ava's medical update

The pediatrician called last Friday to say that Ava tested positive for HepA. She is mostly done with it. She more than likely was infected in the orphanage when someone changed the diaper of an infected baby and didn't wash their hands and then touched her. It is only transmitted by stool. So there isn't anything we need to do. It probably peaked when we were in Vietnam with her, remembering back when she had a fever and probably general not feeling good. The doctor said if you're going to have Hep, you want to have A. She won't have any lasting effects of it and won't get it again. Other than that, everything else was normal. We were so glad to hear this.

Update and pictures

You can tell that I'm busy, I haven't posted in a while. We're still trying to get the household organized. Everyone seems to be adjusting well. Ava is finally starting to sleep better at night. Last night was 7 hours. Wow, it was so good to get some sleep myself. So I'm up early this morning trying to do some work. We are so glad to be home. We were gone 1 day less than 3 weeks, and that was too long to be away from the boys. Nate told me he doesn't want us to adopt anymore because he doesn't want us to be gone. I totally understand. It was hard on me too.

Yesterday Ava had a dr appt with our pediatrician. He said she looks great, she's well proportioned and has gained 1 lb in the last 2 weeks. He wants to do some further checking on her liver, kidney and spleen. He said her liver feels hard, would could be a sign of hepA. If so, it can be easily treated. And he also felt something near her kidney or spleen that he wants to have checked. So she had some blood drawn and today has an ultrasound. I'm a little nervous about this. We should know the results by the end of the week.

Here's a picture from the orphanage. The older children at the orphanage were sitting around just watching us.

Typical Vietnam housing/storefront. They have their shops in the lower level and live upstairs.

A view from our hotel room window.Typical traffic in Hanoi. It's crazy. It's like this all the time.

More Hanoi traffic. This was in the shopping district. Cross the street at your own risk.

I have a whole photo album with lots more pictures. So when you see us you can see the rest.

We are home!

It's so good to be home. We arrived here Tuesday morning, where Mark's parents and Luke met us at the airport. Nate had a school field trip planned, so we didn't see him until he was home from school. We still have some unpacking/organizing to do, but we're so glad to be home before Thanksgiving. Ava is doing great and the boys just love her. This is a short post, just wanted to say we're home. I'll post some pictures later.

Last post from Vietnam

Last night we went to dinner with the other 2 families for the last time. I'm so glad to be going home. We did most of our packing yesterday, except for the things we would need today. We have to check out by 2:30 this afternoon, but aren't being picked up until 4pm. Our flight is at 7:10pm and it's a 1 hour ride to the airport. So hopefully we're not late. We can't leave any earlier than 4pm, because we're waiting for Ava's visa.

We are leaving Vietnam!

We are leaving Monday night for home and will arrive Tuesday morning if all goes as planned. Our flight leaves a couple of hours after we get the visa, so hopefully there aren't any delays. It was the only way to get home without staying over anywhere in the states.