We leave to bring Sophie home in 8 days! Yeahhhh!!!!! :-D
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
~Picture Day at School~
Today was Picture Day at Emma's school, I am SO glad that it fell the week BEFORE we leave for China so that she did not have to miss it. The took individual pictures and a class picture, it will be a cute remembrance to have of her classmates. I got the idea to pull out my old curling iron and add a few loose curls to her hair...I am lucky that Emma is so tolerant of me! ;) 
We leave to bring Sophie home in 8 days! Yeahhhh!!!!! :-D
We leave to bring Sophie home in 8 days! Yeahhhh!!!!! :-D
Monday, February 23, 2009
Ten More Days!
As you can see by Emma's hands, we will be starting the first leg of our journey to Sophie in just ten short days! 
Saturday, February 21, 2009
BASIC ITINERARY FOR THE TRIP!
I promise that I will post some pictures in my next post. :)
We have booked our flights and reserved our hotel for our Journey to Sophie! We are leaving Wichita and flying to Chicago on March 5th. We will meet up with my Mom and spend a short 20 hours in Chicago visiting Greg's family-specifically his Grandma who was in a horrible car accident a couple of weeks ago. We really want to see her. We leave the morning of March 6th for Beijing and arrive the evening of March 7th (are you confused yet???) where we will hop on another flight to Guangzhou where we will finally land sometime after 9:00 pm! March 8th will be our day to recuperate and find a WalMart or Carrefour to stock up on our basics. THEN on MARCH 9TH we will meet Sophie!! :-) We will finalize her adoption the next day and we have our Consulate Appointment tentatively set for March 17th. Then we will fly home on March 19th, we are flying from Guangzhou to Tokyo to Chicago...then my Mom will catch her flight to Michigan and we are stuck waiting for our flight home until the NEXT MORNING...ugh, ugh,ugh. With two toddlers in transit for 30 hours I really wish that we could step foot in our own house that night! Oh well.
Greg had to work today, so Emma and I went to WalMart to stock up on some groceries. We REALLY did stock up, too! I bought anything that was not perishable so that when we get back from China we will only have to run out that day to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. I made 18 individual servings of Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese with peas & froze them so that I will have something to feed the girls (or at least Emma...) for lunch when I am too zombie like to cook during those early days back. ;) I bought baby food and cereal since we still do not know how much exposure-if any-Sophie has had to solid foods.
We leave in 12 days....TWELVE!!!! :-D
We have booked our flights and reserved our hotel for our Journey to Sophie! We are leaving Wichita and flying to Chicago on March 5th. We will meet up with my Mom and spend a short 20 hours in Chicago visiting Greg's family-specifically his Grandma who was in a horrible car accident a couple of weeks ago. We really want to see her. We leave the morning of March 6th for Beijing and arrive the evening of March 7th (are you confused yet???) where we will hop on another flight to Guangzhou where we will finally land sometime after 9:00 pm! March 8th will be our day to recuperate and find a WalMart or Carrefour to stock up on our basics. THEN on MARCH 9TH we will meet Sophie!! :-) We will finalize her adoption the next day and we have our Consulate Appointment tentatively set for March 17th. Then we will fly home on March 19th, we are flying from Guangzhou to Tokyo to Chicago...then my Mom will catch her flight to Michigan and we are stuck waiting for our flight home until the NEXT MORNING...ugh, ugh,ugh. With two toddlers in transit for 30 hours I really wish that we could step foot in our own house that night! Oh well.
Greg had to work today, so Emma and I went to WalMart to stock up on some groceries. We REALLY did stock up, too! I bought anything that was not perishable so that when we get back from China we will only have to run out that day to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. I made 18 individual servings of Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese with peas & froze them so that I will have something to feed the girls (or at least Emma...) for lunch when I am too zombie like to cook during those early days back. ;) I bought baby food and cereal since we still do not know how much exposure-if any-Sophie has had to solid foods.
We leave in 12 days....TWELVE!!!! :-D
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Surgery and Travel Approval...All in One Week!
What a week it has been for The Montieth Family!!
Emma had out patient surgery on Monday. The tubes that were in her ears had become infected, causing a build up of fluid, a growth on her ear drum and a lot of pain! So the ENT flushed out her ears, removed the growth, replaced the tubes and took out her adenoids. She was a trooper before surgery! When she woke up she was disoriented and to make a long story short she was VERY UPSET. Think Linda Blair (Exorcist) with an IV in her hand....not fun! She has been happy to cuddle with her Mommy this week and today she returned to school. We are happy to have that ordeal behind us. :) Emma has been talking alot lately, she says a lot of funny things! But, that will be another post.
Today we received TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!! We knew it was coming, yet it was a complete surprise! We will learn more the next day or so about when we are leaving. We are waiting for a Counselate Appointment in Guangzhou which we will need before booking our flights and hotel room. We could be leaving next week. SERIOUSLY! I feel like I need to start doing SOMETHING to get ready....I have already made 2 "last minute lists"! We are basically ready to go. :)
STAY TUNED!!!! We will soon be an official family for FOUR!
Emma had out patient surgery on Monday. The tubes that were in her ears had become infected, causing a build up of fluid, a growth on her ear drum and a lot of pain! So the ENT flushed out her ears, removed the growth, replaced the tubes and took out her adenoids. She was a trooper before surgery! When she woke up she was disoriented and to make a long story short she was VERY UPSET. Think Linda Blair (Exorcist) with an IV in her hand....not fun! She has been happy to cuddle with her Mommy this week and today she returned to school. We are happy to have that ordeal behind us. :) Emma has been talking alot lately, she says a lot of funny things! But, that will be another post.
Today we received TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!! We knew it was coming, yet it was a complete surprise! We will learn more the next day or so about when we are leaving. We are waiting for a Counselate Appointment in Guangzhou which we will need before booking our flights and hotel room. We could be leaving next week. SERIOUSLY! I feel like I need to start doing SOMETHING to get ready....I have already made 2 "last minute lists"! We are basically ready to go. :)
STAY TUNED!!!! We will soon be an official family for FOUR!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Carousels & TA
Emma is STILL obsessed with carousels. She created this one last night and it just cracked me up. : )
We are hoping that our TA (Travel Approval) arrives SOON! Dear friends of ours are receiving theirs this Friday and our time lines are VERY close. I am crossing my fingers that ours will be following!!
We are hoping that our TA (Travel Approval) arrives SOON! Dear friends of ours are receiving theirs this Friday and our time lines are VERY close. I am crossing my fingers that ours will be following!!Emma's Big Girl Bike
Emma's Auntie Molly bought her a Big Girl Bike for Christmas this year complete with a matching helmet and pads. Emma *loves* her new bike and has been riding it around our carpeted floor in the basement for the past 6 weeks. Last week I let her ride it around the kitchen while I cooked dinner. She was FLYING and thrilled at how fast the bike could move on a hard surface. :-) We had a beautiful 69 degree day last week and I took her outside after school to ride her bike. Emma had a lot of fun! THANK YOU AUNTIE MOLLY!!! :-)
Friday, January 30, 2009
~Happy and Hopeful in Wichita Today~
This post does not have any pictures of Emma-sorry, guys! ; ) I will post some pictures of her riding her big girl bike (w/training wheels) the next time. I promise.
For those of you who have been following Emma's story, you know that we have been searching for answers to our questions. With respect to Emma's privacy I am not going to give a detailed list of what her personal challenges have been or our challenges as a family. If you know us in real life, then you KNOW what I am talking about.
Today we finally met somebody somebody with the RIGHT answer. We have "fired" two Attachment Therapists who did not get it. Dr. "P" is a psychologist and he GETS IT. After a phone consultation with Greg last week and meeting with us today, he diagnosed Emma as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Greg and I had suspected that Emma's condition was trauma based for quite some time and we had actually even discussed PTSD. Emma's prior diagnosis of RAD just never felt "right", we had challenged both Attachment Therapists on the diagnosis. Call it parental intuition. PTSD fits Emma; when Dr. "P" said it...well, it was like a giant light bulb lit up the room. I think that I even said something like "Thank God you get it". He probably thinks that I need therapy, I was talking a mile a minute in his office!! ; )
SO, NOW we can start to help Emma heal. This is a good thing. He sees all of Emma's potential, I like that. Below is a link to PTSD, and the article is LONG. Feel free to read it if you wish. I am including a quote from the article (not my own words, the words of Dr. Bruce Perry). It really sums things up I think!
http://www.childtrauma.org/ctamaterials/ptsd_interdisc.asp
"Typical signs and symptoms of PTSD include impulsivity, distractibility and attention problems (due to hypervigilance), dysphoria, emotional numbing, social avoidance, dissociation, sleep problems, aggressive (often re-enactment) play, school failure and regressed or delayed development".
I'm sharing this information so that family and friends can better understand Emma and our family. I hope that it might also help another family in the same situation as us.
For those of you who have been following Emma's story, you know that we have been searching for answers to our questions. With respect to Emma's privacy I am not going to give a detailed list of what her personal challenges have been or our challenges as a family. If you know us in real life, then you KNOW what I am talking about.
Today we finally met somebody somebody with the RIGHT answer. We have "fired" two Attachment Therapists who did not get it. Dr. "P" is a psychologist and he GETS IT. After a phone consultation with Greg last week and meeting with us today, he diagnosed Emma as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Greg and I had suspected that Emma's condition was trauma based for quite some time and we had actually even discussed PTSD. Emma's prior diagnosis of RAD just never felt "right", we had challenged both Attachment Therapists on the diagnosis. Call it parental intuition. PTSD fits Emma; when Dr. "P" said it...well, it was like a giant light bulb lit up the room. I think that I even said something like "Thank God you get it". He probably thinks that I need therapy, I was talking a mile a minute in his office!! ; )
SO, NOW we can start to help Emma heal. This is a good thing. He sees all of Emma's potential, I like that. Below is a link to PTSD, and the article is LONG. Feel free to read it if you wish. I am including a quote from the article (not my own words, the words of Dr. Bruce Perry). It really sums things up I think!
http://www.childtrauma.org/ctamaterials/ptsd_interdisc.asp
"Typical signs and symptoms of PTSD include impulsivity, distractibility and attention problems (due to hypervigilance), dysphoria, emotional numbing, social avoidance, dissociation, sleep problems, aggressive (often re-enactment) play, school failure and regressed or delayed development".
I'm sharing this information so that family and friends can better understand Emma and our family. I hope that it might also help another family in the same situation as us.
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