Chloe Is One!

Chloe turned 1 yesterday! It pains me to think that possibly the day she was born was not celebrated, but now we celebrate the joy of having her in our family and her life.

It's a family tradition that Greg decorates the girls' first Birthday cakes.

Obviously, Chloe really enjoyed digging into her first Birthday cake.

New toys are great fun!

For those of you who followed our journey to China, you'll remember that my dad travelled with us on our amazing journey. Well, he got engaged shortly before we left. I'm happy to announce the marriage of Dan & Loretta Yoder on July 26th and we are overjoyed that he has found a new companion after the passing of my mom nearly 6 years ago. It was a great day as we celebrated the joining of 2 families.

The girls were all looking so pretty as part of the wedding party.

A New Girl

It took about a week after Chloe's surgery, but then a new girls began to emerge. She is eating and sleeping and just her feisty self. She officially began crawling on Sunday and is already getting across the living room to get into the girls things. Chloe seems more content to play, now that she has a say in what you can do and she's sleeping better also. Thank you Lord. Don't you think she just looks healthy? It's makes me wonder just how long she'd been bothered by the infection.
Our family spent a few day in Pittsburgh last week. We had a great time touring a WWII submarine and visiting the Science Center. We spent a very hot day at Kennywood Amusement Park, but the only riding Chloe got to do was in her wagon.

There were several other adoptive families staying at our hotel, so we took a little time for some pictures with our new friends. I'm amazed by just how many adoptive families we run into.
We got to eat lunch with Chloe's orphanage buddy, Alexandria too. It was great fun to catch up and see just how the girls had changed in such a short time.
Alexandria has been crawling for a few weeks and thought the girls shows were great fun to play with.

Chloe got a new haircut this morning, just in time her grandpa's wedding tomorrow and birthday on Sunday. We'll post pictures from our big weekend soon.

Surgery Update

If you had told me last Sunday what all this past week would hold, I would have laughed at you. Who would have thought that not only would Chloe see the specialist, but have surgery too. Chloe seemed to be more herself again yesturday. She was all smiles and we went swimming for a while as a family. Unfortunately, she didn't have a very good night's sleep and has been on the grouchy side this morning. I'm not what today will hold. Chloe is still refusing a bottle, so we'll have to get that figured out. We're planning to take a few days away late this week as a family, so we'd appreciate your prayers for Chloe's continued recovery.

Chloe got to play with her mask before surgery.

We were so concerned about handing Chloe off to go to the operating room. Chloe has almost never left us and the similarities to her hand-off to us on Gotcha Day were very concerning to us. We were very blessed to have Chloe fall asleep just before the doctor came to get her. Her surgeon was able to carry her sleeping back to the operator room with no trauma. Praise the Lord!

Chloe post-op recovery after surgery.

Chloe enjoying a popsicle after we got home from surgery.

Early Intervention and a Physical Therapist were here with Chloe on Friday to assess her again. She is right on track and has picked up on language very quickly. She's starting to get up on 1 knee and is trying to pull herselft up on things. The therapist gave us few pointers to help her along, but she's catching up quickly in her gross and fine motor skills too. Chloe learned to feed herself this week, so that has made meal time a little different. Also, we taught her to sign for 'more'. That has made a much more peaceful meal. Before, Chloe just yelled each time we didn't give her another bite quickly enough.

Chloe Is Home

Just a quick update to let you know Chloe is home. She did need to have her adenoids removed. After about 3 hours in recovery and 3 oz. of water she was given the ok to head home. She slept through most of this time. Even though she opened her eyes, nobody was home. Thank you for your prayers. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow and tell you about how the doctor carried a sleeping Chloe to the operating room.

Chloe's Surgery

We saw a specialist about Chloe's ear troubles today. I couldn't have planned the appointment any better if I had tried. Chloe even produced a nasty looking booger just in time for the doctor to get a look. She recommended having tubes put in Chloe's ears and possibly removing her adenoids depending on what she finds. Can you believe she had a cancellation tomorrow? We jumped on that, so she'll have the procedures done at 11:30 AM, Wednesday at Akron Children's Hospital. After testing today, they determined Chloe was still hearing pretty well. That explains why she's still picking up so many new words. However, both her eardrums were not working properly and her ears continue to get re-infected. The doctor is suspicious that the bacteria is being harbored in her adenoids and thus they may need to be removed. We'll try to post after surgery tomorrow. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Chloe On the Move?

For those of you who have gotten a chance to meet Chloe in person, you know how much of a wiggle worm she can be. When she's feeling good, she is pretty much in constant motion. She has discovered how to spin in circles when she's sitting and gets up on one knee to reach out and get a toy. She's not officially discovered how to move forward, but I think my days of her sitting still on the living room floor a numbered. See what you think.

We got to visit with Greg's parents this weekend. Chloe let them hold her and play for the first time.

Please be praying for Chloe tomorrow (Tues., the 8th). We take her to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialist at Akron Children's Hospital to see if we can get to the bottom of all her ear troubles.